Updated | Busuttil insists minister’s data on consultancy fees ‘completely false’

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has accused civil liberties minister Helena Dalli of tabling false information in Parliament on consultancies granted by the Malta-EU Information Centre, that the PN leader had headed between 1999 and 2003.

As head of the MIC, Busuttil was responsible for the Maltese government’s EU communications strategy prior to the 2003 referendum on EU membership.

Information tabled by Dalli shows that MIC had paid €12,000 in consultancy fees to Europa Research and Consultancy Services, a consultancy firm of which Busuttil himself was director.

However, Busuttil in parliament accused Dalli of tabling a list of consultancy fees by the ministry of foreign affairs during that period, and not the MIC’s.

“Couldn’t the minister have verified the information before tabling it?” he asked, calling on Dalli to retract it from the House.

In a statement, he gave tourism minister Edward Zammit Lewis and Labour MP Silvio Schembri a 24-hour ultimatum to retract their claims against him made in a press conference and to issue a public apology. Failing that, Busuttil said he will take legal action against the MPs.

During the press conference Silvio Schembri, whose PQ revealed the consultancy details, described the revelations as “scandalous”.

“Busuttil was chosen to lead the MIC on a position of trust basis, without a public call for applications,” he said. “Between 1999 and 2003, he was paid over €750,000, equivalent to a salary higher than that of the Prime Minister, the head of the civil service and the police commissioner, and seven times as high as the minimum wage.”

Questioning on what criteria ERCS was chosen for consultancy work and whether Busuttil personally selected the firm himself, he claimed that the Opposition leader has “failed the litmus test on good governance”.

Tourism minister Edward Zammit Lewis noted that MIC had also paid around €18,000 in consultancy fees to Malta Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who he referred to as “the blogger who is still with us today”.

He added that MIC had employed 17 people of trust, all of whom were selected from outside the civil service, and some of whom eventually landed jobs at embassies and as assistants to PN MEPs.

On her part, Daphne Caruana Galizia declared that she never worked for Simon Busuttil at any point as a consultant or in any other capacity, in any organisation whatsoever nor in a private capacity.

“I never received any payment whatsoever from Simon Busuttil or any organisation he led. I never worked for the Malta-EU Information Centre. I will be filing for libel against those who report this deliberate misinformation without my correction.”