Speaker Anglu Farrugia ruled on Monday that government MPs are free to move a motion before the ethics committee to suspend the debate on a standards report on Justyne Caruana.

Last week, the government MPs on the committee said they wanted to postpone the debate until after the conclusion of court proceedings initiated by the former education minister.

Caruana resigned in the wake of a scandal which saw her friend – former footballer Daniel Bogdanovic – land a €15,000 contract by the education ministry. Standards Commissioner George Hyzler found that Caruana breached ethics and abused her power. Furthermore, Bogdanovic had not drawn up the report himself.

Caruana has since filed court proceedings in which she is challenging the “unfettered powers” of the Office of the Commissioner for Standards.

The ethics committee was set to start debating the report last week but the government MPs said the debate should be delayed until after the conclusion of the court proceedings. The Opposition MPs disagreed, arguing that this was only a ploy to suspend the debate until after the election.

In a ruling given on Monday, the Speaker said the motion put forward by the government MPs was valid.