The Nationalist Party is refusing to acknowledge the facts and is making statements based on what it knows to be false information, the Office of the Prime Minister said in a statement replying to the PN.

The PN said in a statement of its own that Prime Minister Robert Abela is yet to say a word about the benefits racket revealed last Sunday, despite 48 hours having now passed.

It has been reported that the former Labour MP Silvio Grixti was implicated in a scheme which saw people receving benefits for disabilities they did not have or were not entitled to. Grixti resigned from parliament back in December 2021. These benefits were fraudulently handed out to hundreds of people every month.  Sitting minister Owen Bonnici was mentioned in the report as having referred patients to Grixti – an allegation he denies.

Minister Owen Bonnici and the Office of the Prime Minister both answered the questions categorically, Abela’s office said. It said that both answers categorically reject what is alleged and what the PN is basing its statements around.

The statement read that the Office of the Prime Minister was crystal clear in its declaration that when an alleged case of similar abuses was discovered, it was that same office which immediately reported the situation to the police and began investigations.

The Office of the Prime Minister’s response to the situation was as follows:

"It is imperative to note that a similar irregularity was reported to the Executive Police by the Permanent Secretary in charge of the People & Standards Division within the OPM, immediately when a suspicious case was brought to its attention. Further Police investigations ensued. It does not result that any employee at the customer care division ever suggested any 'claimant' or medical practitioner to commit any irregularity, nor that any such employee was aware of these alleged irregularities."

OPM said that if the Opposition wishes to be credible, then it should at the very least recognise the facts when it speaks, rather than basing its statements on things it knows are not true.