Former Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo told a parliamentary committee that during his tenure as minister he only went to watch Manchester United live twice – and both times were because he was invited by the football club.
During a Public Accounts Committee meeting on Wednesday, Bartolo was asked about how tickets granted to the Malta Tourism Authority by the English football club as part of a sponsorship agreement were distributed.
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There has been controversy as Bartolo’s former ministry has consistently refused to publish a list of who has received such tickets and how the MTA had distributed them.
“You’re a lawyer and you know that in contracts like this there is an element of confidentiality on both sides, especially when you’re dealing internationally and there is significant competition,” Bartolo told committee chairperson PN MP Darren Carabott.
“What’s definite is that I never got onto a private jet to go and watch,” he said, a veiled reference to when in 2009 PN Finance Minister Tonio Fenech was given free tickets to a football match in Spain and travelled there on a businessman’s private jet for free.
Bartolo said that while he was Tourism Minister – between November 2020 and November 2024 – he only watched Manchester United live twice: once when the football club organised an event and invited all of its commercial partners, and the second time when the extension of the agreement was signed.
“I never used tickets from the contract,” he said.
He said that the tickets are distributed by the Malta Tourism Authority and are given out in such a manner to help generate more tourism to Malta. This can be through tour operators, radio stations, or social media influencers, he said.
An exact list of who the tickets were given to, however, was not kept, and any data cannot be released regardless, Bartolo said.
Government MPs on the committee meanwhile stopped Carabott from asking the former minister about why he had refused to provide a list of consultants that he had in his ministry.
The government MPs – which outnumber the opposition on the committee by four members to three – insisted that the question was “out of order” and did not fall within the remit of the committee.
Carabott insisted that the question was being asked because consultant are paid using public funds, but the government MPs voted that the question should not be posed.
Bartolo praises film industry’s growth
Bartolo opened the sitting by giving a 20-minute or so prepared statement about his time and achievements as Tourism Minister – a post he held for four years.
He detailed Malta’s Covid-19 pandemic recovery within the tourism sector and also highlighted work done to attract new airlines to Malta, particularly those which make it easier to attract passengers flying in from long-haul markets such as the United States of America.
Speaking about the film sector, Bartolo said that Malta is still not utilising its maximum potential in this industry. He said that one of his biggest regrets was that the new sound stage project had not been carried out.
Turning to findings from the National Audit Office on the film industry, Bartolo said that while the NAO had noted that there was no marketing plan within the Malta Film Commission, it also acknowledged that best practice was followed – something which the former minister said rendered criticism of wanton spending as null.
Speaking about the Malta Film Commission’s Cash Rebate scheme, which has come under scrutiny after millions were paid out to heavy-hitting blockbuster films, Bartolo said that the NAO had deemed the programme to be robust and capable of attracting high-level productions to Malta.
“Whatever the PN leader and his four acolytes say, today we have a film industry which is growing sustainably and experiencing investment to modernise the film studios for the first time in 40 years,” Bartolo said.
On criticism from the NAO that the Malta Film Week event lacked a paper trail in some parts, Bartolo accepted that good governance is important but noted that at the time the Commission was also struggling to fill its workforce.
He said that the allegation by now Momentum chairperson Arnold Cassola that the Film Week had been funded with money that was initially allocated to local filmmakers was found by the NAO to be untrue, and also said that the NAO had noted that the Cash Rebate followed the correct procedures for state aid.
Bartolo said that the film industry has a lot more to give to the country, and said that over €600 million had been spent in Malta in the last 8 years as a result of the sector.
“The opposition’s attacks will continue because they hate success,” he concluded.
‘I wanted to see results’ – Bartolo
Questioning from the committee was largely led by its chairperson PN MP Darren Carabott.
He referred to criticism on the Film Commission’s spending, and asked whether at any point he had regrets about how certain money could have been spent.
Bartolo said that the film industry is one where Malta needs to compete against countries which are bigger than it and which have bigger budgets as well.
“When you see certain figures here maybe you’d think they’re over the top, but when you compare them with abroad, the amounts are not big. For Malta maybe they seem like it – but we are not competing in Malta, we are competing abroad,” he said.
He added that the fact that Malta has managed to attract productions to its shores means that the spending was responsible.
Carabott asked Bartolo whether he used to discuss the criticism that the Malta Film Commission used to receive with Film Commissioner Johann Grech, to which Bartolo replied in the affirmative, saying that even the Permanent Secretary used to be involved.
“The line I followed that I wanted to see results. If something was spent and we got no results from it, then there would have been problems – but we got results,” he said.
Some of those results were immediate: he referred to one instance where a producer came to Malta for the first Mediteranee Film Festival with the initial thought of spending 7 days filming in Malta with an allocated budget of €3 million out of the full €30 million at his disposal.
After attending the event, the producer – who was not named – upped this to 21 days filming with a budget of €10 million to be spent in Malta.
“My regret maybe is that some things could have been explained better. Sometimes we mentioned a figure but didn’t allow people to understand what the country is getting back from it. That’s why we started carrying out studies so we can see that we are getting back,” he said.
Bartolo defends €120,000 spend on David Walliams to host Film Awards
Carabott grilled Bartolo about the Film Commission spending €120,000 to engage British TV star David Walliams to host the Malta Film Awards, with Bartolo implying that he had no issue with the money spent.
“I never take one thing out of context. You have to see the event as a whole and the end result. Walliams was part of the Malta Film Commission’s marketing efforts, and the NAO praised those efforts and said that they’re according to best practice,” the former minister said.
Carabott pressed him further on whether he agreed with the amount of money spent, noting that he himself did not agree with spending such a sum on one person.
But Bartolo retorted that if you have to go to a medical professional and you pay €100 for a 10 minute consultation, it’s because you trust him and his results.
Speaking about the €47 million rebate granted for the filming and production of Gladiator II, he noted that for the rebate to be granted the money first has to be spent in Malta – therefore those arguing that such a big rebate should not have been given would have deprived the country of €150 million in spending.
He referred to an economic impact assessment which the ministry commissioned which noted that for every €1 that the government spends on the rebate the economy gets €3 back in spend and €1.14 back in taxes.
It also emerged that local reality television productions Love Island and XFactor also received money from the cash rebate scheme.