The role of the Malta Tourism Authority is to give out money to imposters posing as businessmen and host tacky events and parties which supposedly cause English tourists to come to Malta and “generate the economy”. Then there is the Chairman, Gavin Gulia who is using MTA’s funds to enrich his family. The virtuous buffoon, Julia Farrugia who likes reporting priests for homophobic speech to the police had no objection to the sleaze at the MTA when she was Minister for Tourism. And today, Minister for Tourism Clayton Bartolo, who most recently extolled the virtues of tax collection, is also ensuring that his family gets a piece of the MTA cake. Here is convicted criminal and fraudster Lionel Gerada, flaunting his government job at the MTA saying that he wasn’t actually demoted at the Malta Tourism Authority, despite press reports saying so.
By now, the sleaze at the MTA has become so pervasive that we kind of expect the MTA to be a hub of corruption and sleaze for criminals and scum. We don’t expect better. In fact, its CEO is Johann Buttigieg, the previous Planning Authority chairman who oversaw Joseph Muscat’s rent-seeking boom in the construction industry. Johann, apart from signing a corrupt contract to Konrad Mizzi, was also caught soliciting business with Yorgen Fenech in his official role as executive chairman to the planning authority.
Robert Abela had strongly defended Johann on the revelations of his chats with Yorgen Fenech. Under Johann’s management of the Planning Authority Robert Abela was also the recipient of “consultancy contracts” amounting to around one hundred thousand Euros every year.
By now, any sane individual would have realised that our country is run by rent-seekers and crooks.
