Gaetano Avallone, Cafe Premier and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando

By an extraordinary coincidence, there’s a factor common to Cities Entertainment, operators of Cafe Premier, which has just been involved in a multi-million-euro government scandal subjected to inquiry by the National Audit Office, and the Malta Council for Science and Technology under the executive chairmanship of Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.

Gaetano Avallone, who was general manager of Cities Entertainment for years until its closure, is now financial controller of the Malta Council for Science and Technology, complete with ‘dot gov’ email address.

I have just rung the offices of the Malta Council for Science and Technology and asked to speak to Mr Avallone, to see exactly when and how he was put on the state payroll at the Science Council, and whether he is indeed the same Gaetano Avallone (because one never knows, there might be two of the same name by some extraordinary coincidence), and he wouldn’t take my call. Nor did he ask me to leave a number with a message that he would get back to me.

The telephone operator who tried to put the call through came back on the line and said that Mr Avallone couldn’t take the call because he is in a meeting and I should “try tomorrow”.

I asked whether that means his meaning is going to take all day today given that it is only 11.30am, and he said, “Iva, nahseb il-gurnata kollha. Ipprova ghada.”

Ipprova ghada – you know, like this is some kind of feat you attempt.

What did he say to you exactly, I asked the (very nice) telephone operator, who replied that Mr Avallone told him to tell me he’s in a meeting (full stop).

I’ve been in this business long enough to know that’s code for “Tell her to f**k off and do the same if she tries again because no way am I talking to that b**ch.”

You have to wonder about these people. They refuse to give their side of the story when you ring for it, and then they complain afterwards and lash out with accusations that they’ve been wronged.

So maybe now the chairman of the Malta Council for Science and Technology will release a statement informing the public as to how the general manager of Cities Entertainment, currently embroiled in a corrupt government deal, came to be on the state payroll at his organisation, as financial controller.