Auditor General raps Chris Cardona for spending €756 of taxpayers’ money on alcohol during a couple of days in Dubai

The Minister for the Economy, Chris Cardona – a heavy drinker who spends most of his non-working hours in an assortment of bars and clubs which include, most prominently, The Stable, Medasia, City Lounge, Medasia Playa, Level 22 and Hugo’s Lounge, and who is sometimes seen going into The Stable when his colleagues are at the office – has been rapped by the Auditor General for spending €756 on “alcoholic beverages” during a trip to Dubai in September last year. Of that sum, €318 was spent on alcohol from his hotel-room minibar.

Cardona was in Dubai, inexplicably, to celebrate the 51st anniversary of Malta’s Independence from Britain.

Earlier this year, Cardona replaced Konrad Mizzi as the Labour Party’s deputy leader.

The National Audit Office report – which goes into angry detail about 10 ministerial trips picked at random for a testing exercise, including a three-day jaunt to Monaco where €8,000 were spent at the hotel – said that Cardona’s alcohol spend was “not considered as relating to official business” (in other words, it wasn’t an entertainment expense) but was claimed by the Minister as “travel expenditure”.

Chris Cardona, the Minister for the Economy, drunk with a non-Maltese friend at Hugo’s Lounge last year. This photograph was uploaded on her Facebook page.