Phyllis Muscat is in New York with her friends Joseph and Michelle

Phyllis Muscat with the prime minister’s head of secretariat, Keith Schembri, in a file photo.

It is not only Mrs Muscat, their children and Luciano Busuttil who form part of the prime minister’s entourage to New York for the UN meeting. Phyllis Muscat, a personal friend of the prime minister and Mrs Muscat, who because of this friendship was put on the state payroll as chief of the CHOGM Organising Committee, is there with them. The prime minister and Mrs Muscat frequently spend summer Sundays as guests of Phyllis Muscat and her husband Paul, on their yacht which is moored at Mellieha. The prime minister’s head of secretariat, businessman Keith Schembri, is in New York with his boss/friend too.