During the entertainment events organized earlier this year, Tourism officials repeatedly stayed in expensive Valletta hotels at taxpayers’ expense.
The Maltese Tourism Authority confirmed that its staff had stayed at two hotels in the city during two different events organized last summer.
The events included a gig by the BBC Concert Orchestra in September and another by renowned DJ Pete Tong the following week.
MTA staff booked two rooms at the Gomerino Hotel, a boutique hotel in Valletta’s St Paul Street, and another two rooms at 66, St Paul’s, a hotel and spa in a recently renovated 17th-century palazzo.
The MTA did not provide an exact breakdown of the costs for how many nights the rooms were booked, but a spokesman for the authorities confirmed that the accommodation cost 165 euros per night and room.
“Authority sources said the total cost was around 3,000 euros”
When asked why these rooms are needed, the spokesman said they were staff providing “logistical support,” the details of which were not explained.
Earlier this month, the Times of Malta reported how the MTA’s events team had made arrangements stay at the renowned Phenicia Hotel for the two-week duration of the Fairyland Christmas attraction, which the company organized outside City Gate, Valletta.
It is believed that the MTA staff were asked by the Ministry of Tourism to change their plans after receiving questions from the press. More than a week after the story broke, the agency has confirmed that the agency has booked a room at the Phenicia for 140 euros a night, but without saying how many nights the room was booked for.
Authority sources said the total cost would be around $ 3,000.
It goes without saying that the accommodation has been given the green light by the MTA’s event manager, Lionel Gerada, who used the room himself. Gerada, a recruiter for former Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi, was hired as head of the events department in 2018 when Mizzi had political responsibility for the company.
He was faced with allegations that the lion’s share of public MTA contracts were awarded to a tight network of individuals.
Questions as to whether action should be taken against Gerada have so far remained unanswered by the MTA.
While senior government sources said Prime Minister Robert Abela directed the MTA to fire Gerada, it appears that the agency’s chief Johann Buttigieg has not yet done so.
Instead, sources said Buttigieg tried to pull Gerada off the event position and instead take on a lesser role as head of quality assurance.
When that failed, Gerada went on vacation, sources said.
Questions were also raised about the number of rooms booked for artists at MTA events.
According to the spokesman for the authorities, the contractual agreements signed for these events stipulate that some rooms must be booked in hotels close to the event for the international staff and the performers.
Various hotels in the capital were used after a tender.
Foreign artists and staff stayed in 170 rooms at the Grand Hotel Excelsior at varying costs between € 160 and € 180 each night for the BBC orchestra and Pete Tong event.
Another 10 rooms in the Phenicia Hotel were used for 290 euros per night, said the spokesman.
The younger Cirque Du Soleil was a comparatively cheap bargain for taxpayers.
According to the MTA, foreign artists and employees took 58 rooms in the ST Hotels and Apartments in Gżira for only € 38 per night.
None of the employees of the MTA was obliged to offer “logistical support” from this accommodation, confirmed the MTA.
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