Film Commissioner reverses statement on Russell Crowe’s ‘consultancy’
News
Film Commissioner Johann Grech was forced to admit that there is no contract to support his line that the Australian actor and celebrity Russell Crowe acted as a consultant to the Maltese Film Commission, even though in July there was a PR blitz on social media accompanied by the public broadcaster’s news reports.
A month ago, Grech, who chairs the Commission, posed with the Oscar-winning actor while he was in Malta for a ‘surprise’ 48-hour visit, and told TVM News that Crowe was working as a consultant for Malta Film Commission.
TVM reported Grech stated that he had discussed his vision of the future of the Maltese film industry with Crowe and that the Australian actor is “acting as a consultant in continuous work to boost the film industry”.
Barely a month after his public statement accompanied by pictures of Grech posing and eating with Crowe, the Malta Film Commission has now admitted that Crowe has no consulting work with the public entity.
In response to a request for Freedom of Information from The Shift, the Commission replied: “No such contract exists between Crowe and the Malta Film Commission.”
The Commission also said that Grech’s meeting with Crowe last July, reported as news by TVM, took place during a meal in a Valletta restaurant, to which Grech was invited.
Grech did not explain why he told TVM that Crowe was working as a consultant to ‘his’ commission.
Grech has become a controversial figure since he left his position in the government as marketing manager for the disgraced former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to take over the management of the Films Commission through a political appointment.
He has made a name for himself for his extravagant spending of taxpayers’ funds, with the most recent case occurring just a few weeks before the last general elections in March when he spent €1.3 million on Malta Film Week.
Grech, supported by the Minister of Tourism Clayton Bartolo, refuses to give information on how these funds were paid.
Some of the contractors who were given direct orders by Grech to provide services for the Malta Film Week were, weeks later, providing various similar services to the Labor Party during its election campaign.
After refusing to provide any account of how these public funds were spent, even for parliamentary questions, The Shift filed a Freedom of Information request where it asked for all the invoices issued for Malta Film Week.
When he rejected the request, the Film Commissioner said that his entity “follows the Regulations on Public Procurement, particularly para. 111(2) of the same rules and regulations, and therefore all factors are made public according to the normal procedures of good governance.”
Most of the €1.3 million spent was given through direct orders, which defy public procurement rules.
The Shift requested an investigation by the Commissioner for Data Protection, claiming that Grech’s refusal to be transparent and accountable goes against the rules of good governance and against the spirit of the FOI Act.