Government to push for ‘immediate publication’ of Hyzler report on Rosianne Cutajar

• PM will comment after publication

The government MPs sitting on Parliament’s ethics committee will take the position that the Standard Czar’s report on Rosianne Cutajar should be published “immediately,” a government spokesperson has told The Malta Independent on Sunday.

Prime Minister Robert Abela will comment on the matter once the report is published.

The Nationalist Party has also called for the immediate publication of the report. The standards committee will meet tomorrow at 8:30am.

Rosianne Cutajar has been found in breach of ethics by the Standards Commissioner over a controversial Mdina property transaction she was involved in together with Yorgen Fenech. It is alleged that she pocketed thousands in brokerage fees and also received cash from the 17 Black owner and Daphne Caruana Galizia murder mastermind suspect.

Independent candidate Arnold Cassola, who had filed the complaint, said on Friday that Standards Commissioner George Hyzler had passed on his report to Speaker Anglu Farrugia.

When a report is passed on to the Speaker, it means that some form of ethics breach has been found.

In February, Cutajar, then Parliamentary Secretary for Reforms, had suspended herself from Cabinet pending the outcome of Hyzler’s investigation.

Prime Minister Robert Abela had said that any decision on Cutajar’s future would be taken after the conclusion of Hyzler’s investigation.

This newsroom sought reactions from both the PM and Cutajar after it emerged that Hyzler’s report was sent to the Speaker.

Attempts to reach Cutajar by phone and via WhatsApp Messenger on Friday and Saturday proved futile.

However, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Robert Abela said that “with full respect towards the process as regulated by law, the Prime Minister will comment once the standards committee decides to publish the report. The government MPs on the committee will take the position that the report should be published forthwith.”

This marks a departure from previous stances taken by the government MPs on the ethics committee, who had voted to keep other ethics breaches reports from being published. Hyzler had in fact said that he, and not the committee, should have the prerogative on whether his reports are published.

Sources told this newsroom that Speaker Anglu Farrugia wants the ethics committee to meet on Monday morning.

Cutajar had come under fire after it emerged that she allegedly pocketed thousands of euro from a failed property deal involving Yorgen Fenech.

According to reports, she and her close associate Charles Farrugia ‘it-Tikka’ had helped broker the Mdina €3.1 million property deal for Fenech. Fenech was trying to purchase the property from a certain Joe Camilleri. The deal fell through after Fenech’s November 2019 arrest and arraignment, and Camilleri is said to be chasing Cutajar to have her return a €46,500 brokerage fee he had paid her.

Cutajar reportedly received a further €9,000 in cash from Fenech, while Farrugia received €31,000.

Camilleri had filed a judicial letter in which he asked Cutajar and Farrugia to refund him €89,000 he had paid them in brokerage fees.

He said he had already paid cash in a promise of sale agreement signed on 14 May 2019, on condition that neither Cutajar nor her associate Charles Farrugia were to take the brokerage fee until the final deed of sale is signed.

In a counter protest, Cutajar denied having pocketed the fee. She also denied having already refunded €2,000, as claimed by Camilleri, and said she will be holding him liable for damage to her political career.

Cutajar allegedly enjoyed a close relationship with Fenech, who, according to a Times of Malta report, had also promised Fenech “some money” while the Qormi MP had “solicited” his help over a political survey.

She said earlier this year that she had cut off all contact with Fenech after he was charged with masterminding the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

When she suspended herself, she had said that she had been subjected to a number of “unjust attacks, political spins, and untruthful comments.”

She said she was suspending herself while she fought off the allegations and to protect the Labour Party.