Nexia BT partner Karl Cini today chose not to reply to any of the questions he was asked during a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing on Tuesday afternoon.

The PAC is examining the Auditor General’s report on contracts awarded to Electrogas Ltd by Enemalta. The company had won the tender to build and operate a gas power station and LNG terminal.

Cini was asked to testify as Nexia BT was on the financial committee that had evaluated proposals submitted for the project.

“My client will not exercise a right to not incriminate himself, but a right to silence,” Cini’s lawyer Stephen Tonna Lowell said at the start of the session.

Nationalist MP Darren Carabott said that the Speaker already ruled on situations like this, after former Minister Konrad Mizzi had also refused to answer questions put to him when testifying before the same committee in the previous legislature.

Carabott insisted that Cini can only choose not to respond to questions that could incriminate him. All other questions had to be answered.

Tonna Lowell maintained that his client has a right to remain silent, and that this is a basic human right.

Carabott asked a string of questions about the tender process and Nexia BT’s involvement in the Electrogas project.

To each one, Cini replied: “I exercise my right to silence.”

“Didn’t you feel that there was a conflict of interest when Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi were clients of Nexia BT while Nexia BT was chosen as a consultant for the tender?”

“I exercise my right to silence.”

Carabott said he will report what happened in the session to the Speaker of the House before Tuesday’s parliamentary sitting. “Then it’s up to the Speaker to take the necessary steps”.