Quinton Scerri’s resignation has sparked a quarrel between PL deputy leader Toni Abela (who is also responsible for PL councillors) and Labour stalwart Ronnie Pellegrini, this media house is informed.
When contacted Dr Abela denied there had been disagreement but informed sources said that the two had an altercation.
Sources who spoke to this media house said that the argument ensued between the two yesterday evening. The argument came about after Dr Abela confronted Mr Pellegrini at the PL headquarters on the way Mr Pellegrini ‘intervened’ in the Board of Local Governance report on Mr Scerri.
Quinton Scerri
The sources said that the argument revolved around the issue that Mr Scerri was denied a fair hearing, as Mr Scerri is alleging.
Mr Scerri told this media house earlier today that the investigation was to say the least conducted in an unjust and militant manner by the board since he was only asked for his side of the story towards the end if the investigation and during the preliminary stages was asked to communicate with the board by email.
The Board of Local Governance report states that Mr Scerri requested the board that one of its members, referring to Mr Pellegrini, is excluded from taking part in the investigations.
The report states that Mr Scerri never gave a reason why he requested this exclusion, however the report further stated that Mr Scerri alleged that Mr Pellegrini was the person who instigated the issue for Mr Scerri to be investigated.
Correspondence seen by this media house shows that Mr Scerri wrote to the board citing the reason why he was requesting Mr Pellegrini is excluded. The correspondence states: “Due to the fact that Mr Pellegrini has already expressed his thoughts on the issue in other instances, I am requesting that the member of the board (Mr Pellegrini) is replaced so that any form of prejudice is avoided.”
The Board of Local Governance on Tuesday ruled that Mr Scerri is not a credible and reliable person and councillors should have used their right to raise a vote of no confidence in him. In an 18-page report, the board drew up its conclusions on allegations made on the operations of the council, including irregularities committed by the mayor during the holding of the international food festival, the awarding of a contract to a company which has, as a director, a relative of the mayor, and an attempt of a frame-up made by the mayor against a councillor.
This newspaper is also informed that this evening, Zabbar PL councillors are to meet with Dr Abela to discuss whether the councilors positions should be dissolved since a number of PL councillors failed to attend a number of meetings following an internal feud between the councillors and the now former mayor. This is the issue which had kickstarted an investigation by the board into the former mayor’s alleged irregularities.
As things stand, a councillor is obliged to attend all committee meetings, but if councillors miss three consecutive meetings within a period of six months without a justifiable reason, the council secretary is obliged to inform the director of local councils of the councillor’s failure to attend and a decision is then taken by the director.