Prime Minister Robert Abela on Wednesday distanced himself from former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s connection with major developer Michael Stivala.

Times of Malta reported last Sunday that payments were transferred to Muscat as part of a “consultancy” agreement with Stivala’s group, just a few months after Muscat resigned as Prime Minister in 2020.

Asked by The Malta Independent today, Abela said that what Stivala and Muscat do is their prerogative and not something he gets into, since Muscat is not in public life.

On the Transport Malta case, where a witness alleged under oath that orders to pass particular candidates on their driving test came “by some ministry or Castille,” Abela reiterated that there are no Ministers being investigated on the case.

He said that the court will determine if these allegations are baseless claims and lies.

“The same witness said that he hadn’t conducted any tests in the past three years and that he could not answer for what happened from January 2020 onwards,” Abela said.

He continued that the witness was referring to telephone calls which allegedly happened in the period when Abela was not Prime Minister.

“I speak to my ministers regularly, and neither Ian Borg nor any other minister is being investigated,” he said.

Asked if he knows former TM director Clint Mansueto, Abela said that he does not, and has had no correspondence with him, only knowing of him through the case.

“There are legal proceedings ongoing, and we will see after then. We strengthened the institutions so we can allow justice to take its course,” he said.

Abela was asked about the rising national debt, to which he said that under a PN government, without a pandemic and without a war in Europe, the national debt was 70%. He said that today, and after three years of giving help to people and continuing to do so, the national debt is at 57%, lower than what is acceptable, which is considered to be 60%.