Updated | Busuttil 'challenges' PM after Labour reveals €1.1 million contracts

Simon Busuttil ‘challenges’ Joseph Muscat to order a police investigation into the €1.1 million consultancy contracts awarded to Europa Consultancy as Labour Party urges Busuttil ‘to come clean’ on the full amounts.

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil received a total of €1.1 million in direct orders when he was an MEP
Opposition leader Simon Busuttil received a total of €1.1 million in direct orders when he was an MEP

The parliamentary secretary for justice Owen Bonnici has called into question the Nationalist Party’s claims that Opposition leader Simon Busuttil’s company Europa Consultancy and Research had benefited from government contracts on the basis of merit.

Bonnici held a press conference at the Labour headquarters in which he took Busuttil to task for having been the recipient of hundreds of thousands in direct orders from various government ministries under the Nationalist administration.

“Most of these contracts were direct orders – a total of €1.1 million were awarded when he was an MEP and then deputy party leader of the Nationalist Party,” Bonnici said.

Busuttil had received a total of €1,289,000 in contracts in the past five years, of which almost half were direct orders according to the government.

Bonnici said that the Nationalist Party could not point its fingers at Labour over claims that it was not fulfilling its meritocratic pledge.

“We have included people who do not hail from a Labour government, like Lou Bondì, Helen d’Amato, Olivier Friggiei, and Judge Giovanni Bonello amongst others… how can Busuttil point his finger?”

“We are not attacking his abilities… but his audacity at insulting people and voice allegations on our meritocratic pledge.”

But in a reaction, the Nationalist Party accused Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of mud-slinging “instead of asking the Police Commissioner to investigate the contracts”.

“There is no limit to the mud-slinging, twisting of facts and negativity of Joseph Muscat and the Labour Party,” the PN said in a reaction to Labour’s press conference.

“The Prime Minister is choosing to throw mud at Busuttil instead of accepting Busuttil’s challenge and ask the Police Commissioner to investigate.”

The PN said Muscat “seems to have forgotten that he is no longer a Super One journalist but a Prime Minister”.

As the Labour Party urged Busuttil “to come clean”, questioning whether there were more contracts than the ones published so far, the PN said Muscat did not want “the whole truth” to come out.

Reiterating he only wanted to damage Busuttil’s reputation, the PN said Muscat was “a showman” hiding how he gave Malta away to his close circles. The PN went on to mention the renting of his own car “so he could pocket €35,000” and jobs given to individuals close to the Labour Party.

“Muscat has offered no justification as to why he gave a job worth €60,000 to his wife’s friend and a lucrative position to Minister Konrad Mizzi’s wife.”