With controversy raging over the use of police officers as catering staff at Thursday’s banquet dinner for some 250 delegates from the European Broadcasting Union, the Home Affairs and National Security Ministry has informed this newspaper that it was the officers themselves who had requested to offer their services at the dinner, and that they were remunerated for their services.

The Home Affairs and National Security Ministry is, in addition to the Police Corps, also responsible for Public Broadcasting Services.

Contacted by The Malta Independent on Sunday, a ministry spokesperson confirmed that the officers deployed to work at the EBU function, held at the Prime Minister’s official summer residence at the Inquisitor’s Palace in Girgenti, form part of the corps’ catering section, which, the spokesperson explains “has catered for various functions”.

According to the spokesperson, 36 police officers in all had “requested to offer their services at the EBU dinner, knowing that this function was being hosted by their ministry. The ministry, on the recommendation of the Commissioner of Police, accepted this request.”

According to the ministry, “Table service was offered by students of the Institute for Tourism Studies, who were assisted by police personnel working in the police catering section.”

Moreover, both the officers and the ITS students were remunerated by the ministry for their services.

The ministry spokesperson explains, “The payments effected by the ministry for this event were received by ITS and the Police Corps, who in turn paid their members.”

Questions pertaining to whether the 36 officers serving at the EBU dinner had been taken off other duties so as to be able to work at the event remained unanswered.