As promised on Wednesday, three members of the Nationalist Party in the Permanent Committee on Public Accounts together with the spokesman for Historical Heritage, Arts and Culture, this morning presented a formal request to the Auditor General to investigate the expenditure of almost €137 million from taxpayers’ that the Malta Film Commission paid to foreign companies between September 2018 and August 2023.

Last Tuesday, the Times of Malta reported how films and TV series filmed in Malta had received €143 million in state aid over the course of the last five years.

In an earlier statement the PN said that from published figures by the European Commission, it resulted “that the Maltese Film Commission has paid, or obliged itself to pay, the overall amount of €143,833,464 from public funds in five years in favour of various private beneficiaries, but €136,793,533 was spent on foreign beneficiaries.”

The opposition reiterates that these millions could have been spent on different sectors, including to strengthening of the Maltese culture or the improving of local talents.

“Accordingly, it is in the public interest to ensure that this type of expenditure of public funds is not depriving, discriminating and/or holding back in any way compared to the expenditure being made to accommodate foreign companies,” the PN said.

The Nationalist Party asked the NAO to investigate, among others, whether the Maltese Film Commission adopted a particular procedure of scrutinizing documentation to issue these payments and whether this procedure was online with the principle of good governance and to establish which procedure is being adopted, as well as to ensure whether a proper scrutiny exercise has been carried out by the Ministry of Tourism.