This was decided at a preliminary meeting of the PAC last night. The meeting, originally scheduled for Wednesday, was brought forward to yesterday as a number of the committee’s permanent members, such as minister Austin Gatt, are going abroad.

The perennial issue of MPs and ministers going off to all sorts of meetings abroad, and the fact that MPs are part-timers, later played havoc with attempts to find dates and times for the meetings. But with some give and take, agreement was reached.

It was a preliminary meeting and even then the issue, the subject of intense public discussion all through summer, still came through.

Dr Gatt started off the discussion by asking what exactly the committee is trying to investigate or examine.

PAC chairman Charles Mangion replied that the PAC intends to examine the procedures that were followed in taking the decision to purchase the building.

At this stage, another PAC member, Leo Brincat, added that the PAC will be just collecting information, finding out the issues at stake and seeing whether government’s own financial regulations were followed. The PAC will be examining this issue just as it examined the HSBC, MIA and Maltapost issues in the past.

Dr Gatt said he agreed with this outlook, even though privatisation processes and also the purchase of Dar Malta are not, strictly speaking, within the PAC’s terms of reference.

Dr Mangion disagreed: he quoted from the standing orders to show that the PAC can see what procedures were taken, how the decision was reached and how it was approved.

In addition, if the hearings find there was the possibility of any irregularity, it could call on the Auditor General to investigate. The PAC exists to provide the public with assurance that public money is being spent well.

He also intends the PAC to study not just the purchase of the building but also its refurbishment plans and also to go into the issue of checking the decision for value for money.

Dr Gatt disagreed with this last proposal: when the Auditor General tried to carry out some Value For Money audits, he complained he did not have the resources to do a proper job. Value For Money audits must be done by professionals, not by politicians.

Once agreement was reached on the procedures to be followed, the issue then turned on who is going to be called upon to testify.

Dr Mangion listed: Lawrence Gonzi, John Dalli, Tonio Fenech, Richard Cachia Caruana, Albert Mizzi, Peter Caruana Galizia, Martin Xuereb, Ivan Falzon, Mario Mizzi and V. Mifsud from Mimcol.

Leo Brincat added European Commissioner Joe Borg, the other members of the technical team headed by Mr Mizzi, the Permanent Secretary within the Ministry of Finance and the two (past and present) in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, government’s Internal Auditor, the Director Corporate Services of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Director General of Public Works.

The last issue to be tackled regarded the dates, and it was on this issue that the meeting seriously risked coming to no agreement.

Dr Gatt suggested one or two full days, just stopping for lunch.

Dr Mangion wanted a series of evening sittings, possibly held on consecutive days, especially since both Mr Brincat and another PAC member, Dr Joe Sammut, work in the mornings.

Dr Gatt objected that his evenings are blocked full of meetings for the next few months but Dr Mangion replied that Mr Brincat finds difficulty from his private sector employer even to attend normal parliamentary sittings in the mornings. Dr Gatt replied that he and another PAC member Tonio Fenech have a series of visits abroad, while it was also pointed out that Mr Brincat and another PAC member Robert Arrigo have Council of Europe meetings next week.

Mr Brincat then suggested lengthening the hearings and starting at 4pm. Someone then went one better, and suggested starting at 3pm and going on to 10pm. That cut the need for the number of sittings from six to just three and it was finally agreed to hold the sittings on three consecutive days, starting on Monday, 11 October.