Not only politicians should be held accountable over public funds, ADPD says

Not only politicians should be held accountable, ADPD Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said when referring to the ITS consultancy contract given to MP Rosianne Cutajar.

Cacopardo warned on Saturday that information that remains hidden leads to bad governance as he called for transparency and accountability to be upheld “without fail”.

“Lack of transparency threatens democracy itself,” Cacopardo said at a press conference outside the National Audit Office in Floriana.

ADPD has asked the NAO to investigate a consultancy contract given to MP Rosianne Cutajar by the Institute of Tourism Studies after this came to light in WhatsApp chats between the MP and murder suspect Yorgen Fenech.

The chats published by author Mark Camilleri were followed up by The Shift News, which published the contract that was obtained through a freedom of information request.

Cutajar was appointed consultant to ITS CEO Pierre Fenech on a three-year contract that paid her €27,000 annually for 24 hours per week of service. The contract was dated May 2019.

Cacopardo praised the Auditor General for taking such cases seriously. He said the Auditor General earlier this week asked for a meeting regarding ADPD’s request.

“We have not asked for Hon. Cutajar to be investigated but for an investigation on whether ITS had engaged her in an abusive manner to carry out work that she had neither the knowledge nor the competency to do. It is not only politicians that should be accountable for their actions,” Cacopardo said.

He added that Cutajar’s contract with ITS is only one example of many that have been uncovered by investigative journalism.

Mina Jack Tolu, ADPD international secretary and European Parliament election candidate, added that the publication of the contract by The Shift brought about the necessary transparency that made it possible for the persons responsible for issuing the contract to be brought to account.