Rosianne Cutajar’s job at the ITS was “illegitimate”, “fraudulent” and in breach of all regulations, the NAO has found
Kulħadd jitħanżer! NAO slams Cutajar’s ITS job as ‘fraudulent’
Cutajar, a former Labour and now independent MP, was employed as a ‘consultant’ to the Institute for Tourism Studies’ CEO in 2019.
Her ITS job was revealed when author Mark Camilleri leaked a series of WhatsApp chats between Rosianne Cutajar and Yorgen Fenech.
Cutajar’s ITS contract was obtained by The Shift through a Freedom of Information request and published in March.
The contract was backdated by at least a month, the National Audit Office concluded in its damning report.
It also said that Cutajar had been hired to do work she had no expertise in, and that there was very little evidence to prove she did any work at all.
“Considering prior concerns raised relating to the irregular and fraudulent nature of this employment, the lack of evidence of any work carried out reinforces this Office’s understanding of negligence in the utilisation of public funds.”
The NAO report further confirmed that she had never declared her gross income of €19.195 from her ITS job to parliament.
It said it could not find any documented evidence that ITS needed to employ a consultant in the first place.
“Neither did recruitment adhere with the policies and procedures governing engagement on a person or position of trust basis”, the NAO concluded.
Cutajar also failed to declare more than €14,000 in taxable income in 2019, as she declared €74,000 but had gross earnings of more than €88,000.
Read the NAO’s report in full:
