Speaker Anglu Farrugia will issue his casting vote on whether Parliament should adopt a Standards Commissioner report into Rosianne Cutajar this afternoon, after the Parliamentary Committee for Standards in Public Life found itself in a deadlock again on Tuesday.
Farrugia, who is the committee’s chairperson, has the casting vote in the case that there is a draw in votes on a motion in the committee.
In a session on Tuesday morning, PN MPs voted in favour of the adoption of the report, while PL MPs voted against its adoption on the basis that they would like more information on the case first.
The Committee met for a third time on Tuesday morning to discuss a report by the Standards Commissioner George Hyzler which found that former Parliamentary Secretary Rosianne Cutajar had breached ethics by not declaring a brokerage fee she had received for a property transaction which involved Yorgen Fenech.
Tuesday morning’s meeting continued very much in the same vein as Monday evening, where Hyzler explained that Cutajar had “insinuated many times” that she wanted a brokerage fee, even though she never explicitly said it.
MPs and the committee’s chair Speaker Anglu Farrugia continued to question Hyzler about the report, really delving into the technical points within the report, and seeking clarifications on other points.
Hyzler said that he had been tasked with reaching a conclusion based on prime facie evidence, which is what he had done.
Questions centred on chats between Cutajar and Yorgen Fenech and the interpretations one can take of these chats, with Hyzler saying that even though neither Cutajar nor Charles Farrugia, Cutajar’s political aide who was allegedly the other broker in the property deal, had explicitly said that Cutajar should receive a brokerage fee – the implication that Cutajar should be paid such a fee was there.
Asked why Joseph Camilleri – the seller of the Mdina property in question – had not taken up the matter in court even after he sent a legal letter to Farrugia and Cutajar, Hyzler said that it was his understanding that Camilleri had tried to settle the matter and seek remedy out of court but that he couldn’t say for sure what his intentions were.
Hyzler was asked by PN MP Karol Aquilina whether a letter sent to the Speaker by Farrugia on Monday, wherein Farrugia said that the money he received was an “ex gratia” payment for introducing the seller, Joseph Camilleri, and the buyer, Yorgen Fenech changed the outcome of his investigations or supported it further.
Farrugia claimed in the letter that Cutajar did not benefit from any of these payments to him. An ex-gratia payment is a voluntary payment made by someone who is not contractually obliged to do so.
Hyzler observed that Farrugia is disputing that the payment was a brokerage fee, and that it was a present. He said that had Cutajar’s defence been that the money was an introducer’s fee which she didn’t have to declare because the transaction hadn’t gone through then one might have been able to reason otherwise, but her position was that she took absolutely no money – which rendered Hyzler’s position as one where he had to see whether it was true or not.
After Hyzler was given his leave from the sitting, the committee continued by discussing what the next step in the process should be.
PN MPs Therese Comodini Cachia and Karol Aquilina had already filed a motion for the adoption of the report the day before – leading their PL counterparts to question how they could do so when Hyzler hadn’t even been asked any questions yet.
PL MPs Edward Zammit Lewis and Glenn Bedingfield insisted that a member of the Tax Department should be brought to testify and ensure that all taxes have been paid and to explain how tax authorities are dealing with the matter.
Aquilina on his part said that this could not be done by law, as the committee had to decide between three outcomes: adopting the report and sanctioning accordingly; tasking Hyzler with investigating the matter further; or rejecting the report.
With regards to the middle of the three points – the one most applicable to the PL MP’s idea – Aquilina noted that Hyzler had already said that it neither his jurisdiction nor competence to investigate tax affairs.
PN MPs said that their Labour counterparts’ demands were a means of simply delaying the process, while Bedingfield said that the Nationalist MPs wanted to push for a decision which can be used for their own political purposes.
After much haranguing from both sides of the table, the motion was voted upon – with PN MPs voting in favour of the adoption, and the PL MPs voting against its adoption on the basis that they would like more information on the case first.
That means that the casting vote falls to Speaker Anglu Farrugia – the second time this has happened, with a case concerning Minister Carmelo Abela and the use of public funds for a political advert (where the Speaker abstained) being the first.
Farrugia suspended the sitting, and this newsroom is informed that his vote on the case will be made known at 4:30pm.