The number of parliamentary questions (PQs) that have been fielded about the national airline and which have remained virtually without the decency of a reply are numerous.

Well, you can safely say that no questions at all have so far been respected since the restructuring process kicked off two years ago.

The standard reply given to us MPs is that the question is about information that is commercially sensitive so that it cannot be divulged. Even the most mundane of PQs have been ignored and I have seen questions that have been prudently made to avoid the disclosure of sensitive commercial data entirely blocked. Indeed, this public company, run with public funds, is enjoying the privilege of unaccountability to the extent that it is above the law and oblivious to public scrutiny.

It is being run by a host of foreign managers and consultants whose pay is protected by a firewall of secrecy, enjoy the liberty of running the company without fear of being made to account for their actions, and without the possibility for anyone to ever dispute the way appointments are made and tenders are offered. You have what you don’t and can’t see.

To be fair, this was not a management decision. It was the minister responsible for the airline who had declared in Parliament that he would refuse to answer any questions related to the airline, arrogating most arrogantly for himself the authority to bypass not only journalistic scrutiny but worse still parliamentary accountability. It is inconceivable that the minister does not know more than ordinary MPs and the general public do about the inner workings of the company, so that he has also put himself, figuratively speaking, above the rule of law simply because he has authority. This is a practice fraught with dangers as power corrupts while absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The practice of refusing accountability for public companies in parliament is, to my knowledge, blatantly illegal parliamentary practice sanctioned by a decision of the Speaker years ago. But from now on I will be making sure that the incumbent Speaker will filter each and every question about the airline that is blocked by sole ministerial discretion. If the House cannot check then what are we doing at the House?

There are many PQs that should have been answered without batting an eyelid because there was nothing in the questions that could be remotely linked to the commercial perspective of the operations of the company. Even the IMF had most transparently disclosed the pay package of its new head Christine Legarde, but tiny Air Malta still refuses to divulge what exactly its CEO and his coterie of managers and consultants are earning and for what exactly.

And besides, the airline is not like a private company that is responsible and accountable only to its private shareholders. The shareholders are the Maltese taxpayers who have a right to know how their money is being spent by the airline. I will not be taking this bull much longer in parliament.

If Air Malta has proudly announced that it is moving its offices to Skyparks then could it have the decency to say at what rent please? I await with angst the reply at this evening’s parliamentary sitting.

Dr Gulia is the Opposition’s Main Spokesman for Tourism and Air Malta