“We will announce all the numbers after the film awards are over,” announced film committee member Johan Grech. That was over two years ago.
Gretsch has been asked many times how much we wasted our money on fancy movie awards nights. When he met with a Times of Malta reporter, he refused to answer that simple question seven times.
He refused to reveal how much he paid David Walliams Because of his appearance that night.
Despite promising to release the numbers over the past two years, Grech has steadfastly refused. Now he has reached the end of the road.
court ordered Grech to hand over electronic copies of all invoices from David Walliams, his agents, or the company overnight.
It’s been a long and winding road to get here, but the story is simple.
Johan Grech, who started out as a propagandist and speechwriter for Joseph Muscat, felt he could do whatever he wanted with our money.
Labor allocated €400,000 for the lavish one-night event. But Grech spent more than that. David Walliams is said to have been paid more in one night’s pay than the average Maltese citizen earns in 45 years.
local film producer Angered that the funds allocated to local film production were less than what Grech spent in one night, he boycotted the event.
questions were asked,Everyone wanted to know why our money was being wasted on a gaudy, vulgar show parading Labor ministers in ill-fitting tuxedos.
Well, Gretsch wasn’t really playing around and kept teasing the reporter who didn’t have any answers. “Award ceremonies offer value for money,” he asserted.
“We strive to give a good show. We celebrate our stories,” he declared.
Yes, we celebrate the Labor Party story.
At least three labor ministers were presented with awards: Clayton Bartolo, Carmelo Abela, and Jose Herrera.
A number of Labor Party aides, including Malta Enterprise CEO Jason Micallef, Joseph Muscat spokesperson Kurt Farrugia, Albert Marshall, PBS CEO Mark Sammut and Johan Buttigieg, also took to the stage to present Malta’s version of the Oscars. Showed off.
And of course, Johan Grech was also in the spotlight center stage. No one knows how much they paid for those two hours of lameness.
Gretsch and Clayton Bartolo came up with all sorts of excuses, including “We’ll release all the numbers after the film awards are over” and “The numbers are still being tallied.”“I can’t calculate how much it will cost.” or the award-winning “I don’t guess numbers.”
The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation asked Grech how much David Walliams was paid for that night. Grech refused to respond, insisting that there were “sufficient reasons for withholding the requested documents.”
When the Foundation complained that the requested documents were not exempt under the Freedom of Information Act, the Film Commission relied on the UK Information Commissioner’s Office’s decision on confidentiality and disclosure of earnings as a pretext for withholding information. listed.
When the foundation filed a complaint with the Information and Data Protection Commissioner,The Commissioner ordered Grech to release the requested information.
He ruled that the Gretsch Film Board had cited the British decision out of context and that it did not apply to the case, and that the Information Commissioner’s Office had distinguished between private and public life.
Further, the Commissioner determined that the confidentiality clause with Walliams could not be used to prevent disclosure of the fees he paid.
Instead of complying with the Commissioner’s decision, Mr Grech appealed to the Data Protection Tribunal.
The court upheld the Commissioner’s decision and ordered Mr. Grech to hand over the information.
But Gretsch wasn’t finished.
He filed a lawsuit in civil court, It requests that the Commissioner’s decision be invalidated and rescinded.
Judge Lawrence Mintoff wiped the floor with him. The court noted that the information is requested by public authorities based on contracts entered into “with service providers of their own free will.”
The court ruled that the Film Commission “has an obligation to clarify and explain how public funds are used.” “The information requested relates to payments made to individuals directly selected by the commission without public recruitment,” it said.
The judge dismissed the commission’s appeal. The court was forced to state the obvious fact that the money came from public funds and did not belong to Johann Grech. He chose David Walliams and gave him a direct contract without an open offer.
The court ruled that the amount paid by Mr Grech to Mr Walliams must be disclosed “in order to comply with the principles of transparency and accountability”.
The National Audit Office has already found that the film commission had “completely ignored established policies and procedures governing international travel and the extravagant use of public funds.”
Now, the court has issued a scathing ruling condemning the commission’s secrecy.
“I have nothing to hide,” Johan Grech told reporters in September 2023. While stubbornly refusing to answer basic questions. Grech has gone to great lengths for people who have nothing to hide.
What’s worse, he wasted much more of our money. These appeals and court proceedings placed an additional unnecessary financial burden on the state.
It’s bad enough that he wasted probably more than a million euros of public funds on a tasteless and gaudy kitschy pantomime, but it’s disgusting to make the public pay even more to cover up his debauchery.
Time has finally caught up with Johann Grech. His evasions and deceptions are revealed and there will be more to come.