A Malta government first: a corrupt Christmas crib that cost €114,900 by direct order

The Christmas crib which the Malta government commissioned by direct order for display at St Peter’s in Rome cost €114,900 in payments to the maker, Manuel Grech. The sum does not include the cost of travel and accommodation for the sizeable delegation, which included Justice Minister Owen Bonnici and his girlfriend Janice Bartolo, who went to the Vatican for the ‘inauguration’.

The direct order is listed in the Government Gazette as having been given in June (see picture below), but in this publicity video released by Parliamentary Secretary Justyne Caruana, Grech says that he has been working on it since February – four months before the government issued the direct order.

You have to ask why the government of Malta spent so much money on a Christmas crib for the Vatican in the first place, instead of putting one up in Valletta or just using the money to feed the homeless – which is, after all, the essential theme of the Christmas crib.

The answer is in the opening seconds of the video: Frank Zammit, who has had a lifelong career as John Dalli’s personal assistant, and who switched to Labour when Dalli did, calls him a “Vaticanologist” – which means a person obsessed with the Vatican.

This is the basis of corruption, of course: using public funds to satisfy the personal interests, hobbies or quirks or bank accounts of the people in power, who then pass on the jobs to their cronies.