Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee resolved on Wednesday to issue another summon for former Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi to testify before in what was a stormy, and sometimes farcical, session. 

The committee – made up of PL MPs Glenn Bedingfield, Clayton Bartolo, Alex Muscat, and Jonathan Attard and PN MPs Beppe Fenech Adami (who is the chairperson), Karol Aquilina, and Ryan Callus – met on Wednesday afternoon to decide the next procedural step that should be taken after Konrad Mizzi refused to testify about the Electrogas power station. 

Both the PL and PN MPs agreed that Mizzi should have gone to testify before the committee, but things came unstuck when PN MP Karol Aquilina put forward a motion for the committee to “condemn” Mizzi’s decision not to attend the session as “deplorable.” 

PL members responded to this by saying that the place for “political spin” was in press conferences – like the one which the PN had addressed earlier in the day, where they branded Mizzi as a “coward” and a “chicken” for refusing to turn up. 

Instead, PL MP Alex Muscat proposed that the committee should state that all witnesses should attend sittings – even if they have the faculty to choose not to, as Mizzi does as an MP – and that Mizzi should hence be re-summoned to testify. 

The suggestion was made amidst cries and calls from Aquilina and his PN colleague Ryan Callus that the PL was refusing to condemn Mizzi for his no-show decision. 

The meeting frequently descended into a pathetic shouting match between the two sides, with PL MP Glenn Bedingfield at one point reprimanding Aquilina and Callus for seemingly thinking that they were in “Siggiewi kazin” rather than in Parliament – a remark which earned Callus saying that Bedingfield was “rude.” 

In an exchange from either side of the room, Muscat questioned what was wrong with the PL’s motion, while Callus questioned whether the PL agrees with Mizzi’s decision not to turn up for the meeting. 

Neither of the MPs got an answer from each other for their respective questions, rendering the bickering useless. 

Fenech Adami at one point attempted to, as the committee’s chairperson, bring some form of calm to the meeting – which lasted all of a minute until he went on his own statement about how the committee should condemn Mizzi. 

“I am understanding that both sides want Konrad Mizzi to come because we do not agree with what he did [to not show up]. So let’s come out as a committee and speak beyond partisan politics – Konrad Mizzi’s acts damage all politicians, so let us send him a message and tell him that he did wrong, then we will make a request for him to come, maybe he will see the light in the road to Damascus,” Fenech Adami said.

He was soon interrupted by Muscat, however, who asked him to “once you are ready from getting your soundbites for 101 [FM, the PN’s radio station] and NET” refer to the PL’s motion. 

Bedingfield here said that he would be requesting a ruling from the Speaker on how to move forward from here - but Fenech Adami and the other PN MPs refused the suggestion and pushed for the committee to go for a vote. 

The suggestion greeted more protests and bickering, with the PL members saying that once a ruling is called for then the sitting should be suspended until that ruling is handed down. 

Tensions here boiled over, after Aquilina here accused Muscat across the room from saying that Aquilina had tried to run over a policeman – a reference to a case against Aquilina, based on footage leaked by a police officer to Labour’s TV station, which was recently thrown out by the courts over a total lack of evidence. 

The apparent mention – which wasn’t picked up by the microphones in the broadcast – elicited a furious reaction from Aquilina, who accused Muscat of peddling a total lie and said that the PL MP should be ashamed: “You tried to throw me in jail”, Aquilina shouted across the room. 

On his part Muscat refused the assertion that he had mentioned the court case, and accused Aquilina of making that up.  He also said that he would be filing a breach of privilege with the Speaker because Aquilina had apparently called him “corrupt.” 

Aquilina responded by saying that he would be filing a breach of privilege against Muscat on what he said first. 

The committee ultimately went forward for a vote, with the PL MPs voting against Aquilina’s motion due to a “lack of agreement on the procedure for what to do since Konrad Mizzi did not show up, and we insist that if the committee wants to take ulterior steps these should be regulated by the Speaker.” 

The committee then voted by majority in favour of Muscat’s motion to re-summon Mizzi to testify – with Aquilina and Callus pointing out how the PL MPs had refused to condemn the former minister and PL MP.