The chairman of the Public Accounts Committee has proposed a meeting for 8 August, where the testimony of former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on the Electrogas case would be expected to continue.
The decision was taken after, according to a Nationalist Party statement, the Speaker of the House of Representatives said that the committee could meet in summer even though Parliament is in recess.
The PN said it welcomed the Speaker's decision after the PAC chairman, Darren Carabott, had asked for his advice on the way forward after the Labour representatives on the committee refused to attend hearings while Parliament is observing a summer recess. The PL representatives want the hearings to continue in October.
The PN welcomed what it described as the Speaker's condemnation of the PL whip, who is also a PAC member, who wrote to the witness (Muscat) directly to tell him not to appear for the sitting because the PL members were to not attend, which meant that no quorum would have been reached. The Speaker said that PL whip Andy Ellul had acted beyond his remit.
The Speaker had decided that the committee could continue to meet in summer, as it had done last year. PAC chairman Carabott therefore convened the next meeting for 8 August. The PN hoped that the PL members will attend.
In the first letter, Carabott, representing the Nationalist Party, sought to have PAC sittings continue in spite of Parliament not convening until October. The committee is investigating the Electrogas deal, with Muscat still to finish his testimony.
Carabott informed the Speaker that the four PL members on the PAC do not want to attend committee hearings in summer and will not be appointing any substitutes. They are willing to resume their function when Parliament reconvenes in October.
Carabott said that the behaviour of these MPs is irresponsible and an abuse of power that one of the members, who is the whip of the PL, directly informed Muscat that meetings will not take place because government members will not attend and, as such, no quorum will be reached.
The PAC is made up of seven members, four from the PL.
In reply, PL whip Andy Ellul said that Carabott is going against rulings that insist that there should be consensus on PAC meetings.
Carabott wants meetings to be held without the government's representatives, Ellul said on Facebook.
We expect him to communicate with us for a consensus to be reached, and not impose on others so as to satisfy the (PN) establishment, Ellul wrote.
He said that he had informed the witness, in this case Joseph Muscat, that the hearing could not take place. The letter was copied to Carabott and the House Speaker. Although the PAC meets on Tuesdays, Carabott saw nothing wrong to change the agenda to go to watch a football game, Ellul added.