Rosianne Cutajar says ethics complaint on her ITS consultancy dropped by Standards Commissioner

Former Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar said the Commissioner for Standards has dropped his investigations into a consultancy with the Institute for Tourism Studies (ITS) awarded to her in 2019.

In a Facebook post on Friday, Cutajar said she received a letter from the commissioner informing her that his investigations into the case will not be continued, and the case will be considered closed.

“This was another attempt by the same group of people who systematically and aggressively attacked me on a political and personal level to ostracise me from my political and Labour activism,” she said.

The case concerns a 2019 consultancy she held with the tourism institute. The complain, filed by NGO Repubblika, concerned the omission of this consultancy in her parliamentary declaration of assets.

News of this consultancy came to light after leaked WhatsApp chats between Cutajar and businessman-turned-murder suspect Yorgen Fenech.

In the chats, it was revealed that Cutajar felt entitled to this extra government job while she was already a backbencher in Parliament. “Everyone else is pigging out,” she told Fenech in the chats.

Despite taking on the consultancy at a €27,000-per-year rate, her parliament declaration makes no mention of this added income.

The chats led to her resignation from the Labour Party parliamentary group. She remains an independent MP.