The Prime Minister today avoided answering a direct question on a possible conflict of interest that may have arisen following the publication of a story by this media house that MITA is investigating the “disappearance” of an email sent to the media by Godfrey Farrugia to announce his resignation as Health Minister

Earlier this month, Dr Farrugia had told The Malta Independent on Sunday that the email he sent on 29 March mysteriously did not arrive at its intended recipients. This week, Dr Farrugia confirmed with The Malta Independent that he had handed over his tablet to MITA, the Malta Information Technology Agency, in order for the agency to investigate the incident. 

During a press call this afternoon The Malta Independent asked Dr Joseph Muscat on whether he thinks it is a conflict of interest for MITA to investigate the disappearance of this email, given that MITA is responsible for the government’s communications services. To this, Dr Muscat replied that after this newspaper published the story, MITA asked Dr Farrugia to hand over his tablet, which according to Dr Muscat, the former minister had not done so.

He did not comment on whether this creates a conflict of interest, walking away before a follow-up question could be asked.

The former health minister had sent out the letter to the media shortly after he informed Joseph Muscat about his resignation. But the public only learnt about this after his partner Marlene Farrugia posted this same resignation letter on  Facebook.

It is the practice that ministers hand over their official ipads and mobile phones back to the government once they resign. Dr Farrugia handed in the devices soon after he resigned.