Nationalist Party MP Beppe Fenech Adami this evening argued that the 'time period' and the 'amount' of people employed, are the main factors which differentiate his case from the 2017 pre-election employment drive, both linked to Wasteserv.

Testifying before the Publics Account Committee this evening, Fenech Adami said "the dynamics which are different are the period and the amount. (In 2017) 129 people were put into Wasteserv in the period before general elections."

"Your argument is that they were employed to work at Wasteserv because there was a need for them. I am saying it is obscene that three weeks before the elections, so many people are employed."

During his testimony, Fenech Adami was questioned by Labour MP Robert Abela and Parliamentary Secretary Rosianne Cutajar, amongst others.

Fenech Adami, who usually chairs the PAC, was replaced by Nationalist MP Kirsty Debono this evening throughout his testimony.

Fenech Adami was testifying in light of Wasteserv emails which were published by MaltaToday last February, in which PAC Chairman Beppe Fenech Adami, along with committee members Claudio Grech and Jason Azzopardi, appeared.

The PL group raised concerns that Fenech Adami, Claudio Grech, and Jason Azzopardi all appeared in the emails, bringing doubt upon the integrity of the committee, especially as they were examining Wasteserv and its employment practices during the general election in 2017.

Fenech Adami argued that the woman who he allegedly recommended to Ray Bezzina, a former political aide to former resources minister George Pullicino, called him following the email leak, claiming she did not end up being given the role.

Asked by Abela if he used to meet up with Ray Bezzina frequently, or whether it was some form of strategy, Fenech Adami said that it was not the case.

 Pressed by Abela and Cutajar whether there were more emails of this kind Fenech Adami said "I am certain that if there were more emails, they would have been shown. "I do not recall that there were others," he said. Cutajar then asked whether he excludes that there were other emails. "If there were, I am not aware," he said.

Fenech Adami also pointed to the lack of customer care structures which he had as a newly-elected MP back in 2010.

He also argued that there is a difference between 'helping someone out' and 'pushing someone into' a job. "I never got people in somewhere where they didn't have the right to get in," he stated.