Questions that were asked in Parliament by Jason Azzopardi and mostly not replied to by Minister Edward Scicluna lead one to suspect that the appointment of Paul Bonello to head Malita, already officially announced, may have been withdrawn.

Paul Bonello, who heads Finco, a financial services company with offices in Floriana, came to national attention when he took over the defence of Valletta Fund Management investors who were up in arms at the collapse of their investments in a property fund.

Mr Bonello also came in conflict with Bank of Valletta which shares responsibility for VFM, heavily criticisng the bank’s top management especially former chairman Ronald Chalmers and CEO Tonio Depasquale.

In recent months, Mr Bonello also addressed a Labour Party election campaign mass meeting.

Following the election, he was announced as the new head of Malita, the Special Purpose Vehicle created by the PN administration to own and run the government’s investments including the area of the airport and the Valletta Cruise Liner Terminal and most notably the new Parliament building and the restored Opera House.

In Parliament on Monday, Dr Azzopardi pouned on an Edward Scicluna reply that the appointment of the head of Malita will be announced ‘in due course’. Dr Azzopardi repeatedly asked if this meant that Mr Bonello’s appointment has been withdrawn.

Receiving no clear answer from the minister, Dr Azzopardi asked if it was true that the government had been advised that appointing Mr Bonello would have infringed the Stock Exchange rules because it would have created a conflict of interest.

Prof. Scicluna again replied ‘No Comment’.