Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar will be treated like every other tax-payer if the tax commissioner finds any shortcomings in terms of her fiscal reports, Prime Minister Robert Abela said today.

Cutajar has been under the spotlight after she was found guilty of an ethics breach by Standards Commissioner George Hyzler. On Sunday, Cutajar hit out at the decision, calling it unjust and saying that the report contains a lot of “double standards.” The tax commissioner is also investigating her tax returns.

The Prime Minister said that the resignation from her position as parliamentary secretary shall remain intact, however, she still holds a position of an MP.

“If there is any fiscal shortcomings found by the tax commissioner, then Cutajar should be treated equally as any other citizen, with no favourable treatment,” Abela said when speaking to journalists on Wednesday morning.

He remarked that he took his decision at once when the news of the report’s findings was made public. “As it is publicly known, I took the decision regarding her position immediately once the report of the Standards Commissioner was published. Her resignation as parliamentary secretary will remain in place.”

Abela took the opportunity to score some political points.

“The only tax investigation that I can speak of with certainty is that of the Opposition Leader," he said. "This investigation referred to a number of years of tax evasion which ended up with the conclusive report of thousands of euro of tax evasion, and were paid when he decided to contest as an Opposition leader,” he said.

The Prime Minister remarked that the institutions which are in place have to be free to investigate on their own and he will see what the results are.

“We will see what the tax commissioner has to say. This is the way things work. We can’t say that we have faith in the autonomy of the systems but at the same time we doubt them,” he remarked.

However, he said that people should not mix up what the Standards Commissioner says and what the Tax Commissioner finds, as they are two different investigations.

The Prime Minister said that Hyzler’s report shows two things that are diametrically opposite to one another, where “Joe Camilleri is saying something and Cutajar is saying something else”. 

Next Monday, there will be the hearing of the Standards Committee, Abela noted, where Hyzler will be attending and he will be asked and provide answers about the report. The PM said that the Committee will decide its vote at that moment whether to adopt the report or not, “and this process should be left to take its course in the good way it has always been led,” he said.   

 

“Naturally, there might be agreement or disagreement, but the cardinal point is that we should respect the institutions,” Abela remarked.