It is evident that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has his back against the wall on the Old Mint Street scandal, which hits the Lands Department that falls part of the PM’s portfolio, the Nationalist Party said.

In a statement, the PN made reference to the purchase of property by the government from Mark Gaffarena for a fee of €1.65 million, saying that Joseph Muscat misled Parliament on Monday.

After the Opposition requested the Auditor General to investigate the scandal, the government ordered an investigation by the Internal Audit Investigations Department. This had happened after the government had initially insisted there was no need for an inquiry.

The Opposition had insisted immediately that there is a difference between the investigation of the Auditor General’s – who is answerable to Parliament – and the IAID, which reports to Cabinet and does not publish the outcome of the investigation.

In his defence, while answering parliamentary questions Joseph Muscat read parts of the internal audit investigations act, with the aim of giving the impression that it is as strong as the auditor general’s investigation.

But conveniently the PN said the PM left out two important articles of the law:

22. (1) All information furnished by an auditee during the course of any internal audit or financial investigation shall at all times be treated as confidential and shall be solely used by the Directorate for the purpose of carrying out the internal audit and, or financial investigation.

(2) The Director shall treat internal audit reports and reports of financial investigations as strictly confidential and shall, except for the purpose of any criminal investigation or prosecution, only disclose their contents to the Permanent Secretary or, as the case may be, the Chairman of the Audit Committee of the Central Bank of Malta, and, if necessary, to the Board, or to the Auditor General.

This means that the investigation Muscat wants will be kept secret and its conclusions only made known to him. The Opposition insists that the investigation must be made by the auditor general.

The PN said that Muscat is politically responsible for the scandal, the PN said.

In reply, the government said that the opposition is being inconsistent in its stand on the issue.

Yesterday. Jason Azzopardi criticised the investigation ordered by the government. Later, in Parliament, deputy leader Mario de Marco said the Opposition did not want the two inquiries to overlap each other. Today the PN is again attacking the investigation.