Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has the duty to explain why he took two weeks to request the Police Commissioner to investigate corruption claims made by former Nationalist MP Frank Portelli with regard to the building of the Mater Dei Hospital, the Malta Labour Party said in a statement.

Dr Portelli made serious accusations on 1 May, and for many days, the Prime Minister did not give any heed to what had been said. Dr Gonzi moved to ask for police intervention only after Labour leader Alfred Sant said he agreed with Dr Portelli that the matter should be investigated, that is two weeks later.

This request confirmed the seriousness of the accusations, and this should have spurred Dr Gonzi to take action in the hours after the allegations were made. If the MLP had not spoken about it too, Dr Portelli’s allegations would not have been investigated, the MLP said.

This can be confirmed through statements made by both the PM and parliamentary secretary Tonio Fenech in the days following Dr Portelli’s statement. Until last week, Dr Gonzi had maintained that it was Dr Portelli himself who should have gone to the police and Dr Gonzi did not show any inclination to ask for a police investigation. For his part, Mr Fenech had said that the police could not investigate what Dr Portelli had said because “he had said nothing” according to Mr Fenech, the MLP said.

These two declarations confirmed that before Dr Sant spoke in Mellieha last Sunday, the government did not have any intention of investigating the matter.

Mr Fenech should explain why he said the police could not investigate while Dr Gonzi should say why he took so long to order an investigation, the MLP added.