Speaker of the House Anglu Farrugia today ruled that Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia's replies in parliament to PN MP Jason Azzopardi did not constitute a breach of privilege when he said that the ministry could not table how many calls for applications related to courses in the UK were issued for AFM top officials since Malta's EU accession.
It results that no applications had ever been issued, not now nor in the past, and those who attended were handpicked.
Dr Mallia had pointed out that now Brigadier Jeffrey Curmi had been turned down each and every time he applied to attend a course under a PN administration.
Dr Azzopardi had raised a point of order after he raised a number of questions in parliament, directed towards Dr Mallia, including naming the Armed Forces of Malta officials who applied to attend a course at the Royal Defence College in the UK.
Dr Mallia had replied that nobody applied to attend staff colleges in the UK. Dr Mallia had said that it results former commander Martin Xuereb had been handpicked to attend a particular college in the UK.
The Speaker found that Dr Mallia did not intend to deceive or mislead the public when he said that there had been no call for applications issued since he was referring to UK staff colleges in general and not specifically the Royal Defence College only.
In a matter of months following Labour's electoral victory in March 2013, Brig Curmi had got four promotions: from major to lieutenant colonel, then to colonel, deputy commander, and now commander.
Dr Azzopardi had said this was the first time since Malta's accession to the EU in 2004, that the highest two ranks in the army were awarded to two officials who did not follow a junior or advanced staff training in "colleges of high reputation overseas".
On the issue of accelerated promotions, Dr Farrugia said that Dr Mallia's reply did not constitute a breach of privilege either. Dr Mallia had argued that the accelerated promotion of Susanne Agius was needed since she was one of a few lawyers who form part of the AFM.
On Brig. Curmi's appointment, he said that the commander did not leapfrog ranks when he was given a number of promotion since they had been given to him in the right order.