ADPD call on Auditor General to investigate Cutajar’s employment contract with ITS

ADPD Chairperson says it is well known that Rosianne Cutajar ‘does not have any competence’ in financial administration services

ADPD have requested the Auditor General investigate the employment contract awarded to Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar by the Institute of Tourism Studies.

ADPD chairperson Carmel Cacopardo asked the Auditor General to establish whether public funds have been abused by ITS through the creation of a “fictitious job to satisfy Cutajar’s greed.”

Details about the job first emerged in the unredacted transcript of Whatsapp chats between the MP and alleged Daphne Caruana Galizia murder mastermind Yorgen Fenech, which was published by author Mark Camilleri last week.

The chats revealed how the MP had expressed her anger to Fenech after she was not given a cabinet role by then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, saying she would take up the job because “everybody pigs out”.

After a freedom of information request, The Shift News had revealed that Cutajar was engaged to provide financial administration services to ITS.

“It is well known that she does not have any competence in this area,” Cacopardo said in his letter to the Auditor General.

During the period when Cutajar was awarded the contract, ITS fell under the remit of former minister Konrad Mizzi.

Speaking to the media on Monday, Prime Minister Robert Abela said all government MPs “recognise their responsibilities.”

“I am convinced that everyone recognises their responsibilities as MP, towards the parliamentary group, the Labour Party and the country as a whole,” Abela said.

He said he had not spoken to the MP personally but underlined the fact that his public declarations, spoken as the prime minister, should read clearly.

“Two years ago, on similar details related to those chats, it was decided that Cutajar resigns from parliamentary secretary, and she paid the political price. I understand that some details in the chats are new – I have been clear, everyone must shoulder their responsibility.”

Abela said he still condemned the leak and publication of evidence that was within the control of the Criminal Court, as part of the charges brought against Fenech, accused of being the mastermind in the Caruana Galizia assassination.