The Nationalist Party said that a meeting of the parliamentary Standards Committee confirmed how the Opposition had been right to vote against the appointment of former Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi to the post of Standards Commissioner.

In a series of questions made by MPs Ryan Callus and Mark Anthony Sammut, it clearly emerged that the commissioner had failed to investigate “several points of great importance” in declarations made by Labour MP Michael Farrugia in a meeting he had with Yorgen Fenech, the man who now stands accused of being a mastermind in the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Last month, the Standards Committee published the report compiled by the Standards Commissioner which found that former parliamentary secretary Michael Farrugia had breached ethics by giving the wrong information on how Mriehel was to become a zone where high-rise buildings could be constructed.

The investigation had been requested by independent candidate Arnold Cassola back in 2020, after comments Farrugia had given Times of Malta. On the day of the meeting with Fenech, Farrugia – who in 2014 was politically responsible for planning - had written to the Planning Authority to include Mrieħel as a high-rise zone as part of a new policy. Fenech’s family company had benefitted from this and went on to build the Quad Towers in partnership with the Gasan Group.

The PN’s statement on Saturday said that the commissioner had ignored or been found wanting on the following instances:

Farrugia had sustained that in the meeting with Fenech in the presence of Johann Buttigieg, then executive chairman at the Planning Authority, the high-rise policy had not been discussed. The commissioner had believed them and did not feel the need to summon the other witness, Yorgen Fenech, the PN said.

When asked why he did not call Fenech to testify, the Standards Commissioner had replied that Fenech was facing criminal charges and, if he (Azzopardi) had been his (Fenech’s) lawyer, he would have advised Fenech not to testify.

In the testimony given by Buttigieg, it had been said that other people were present, including Fenech's architects and “probably” also Farrugia’s secretary “who was probably taking down minutes”. When asked whether he had come to know who these people where and why they had not been summoned, Azzopardi said that he felt there had been no need.

When Azzopardi was asked whether he had requested a copy of the minutes of the meeting, the commissioner again replied that he did not see the need for this, the PN statement said.

Buttigieg sustained that at the time meetings were being held with various entrepreneurs interested in land reclamation. When Azzopardi was asked whether he had verified that these meetings had truly been held to establish if Buttigieg was saying the truth, the commissioner replied that he had not verified.

Azzopardi, according to the PN, was also asked if he had verified in what way a government letter to the Planning Authority Board had been sent to give it instructions about high-rise policies in Mriehel. Azzopardi had replied that this letter was seemingly sent via Messenger but he had not investigated whether this letter had been sent after the meeting with Fenech.

The PN said that all this shows that the Standards Commissioner’s investigation had not verified “facts and allegations” behind the reason for the meeting with Fenech, and whether Farrugia had said the whole truth when asked about it.

For the Opposition, this is a confirmation that Joseph Azzopardi should have never been made Standards Commissioner.

Malta has lost a pillar of good governance, the PN said. It is now completely clear why Prime Minister Robert Abela was so adamant to have Azzopardi appointed, so much so that the law was changed to allow the appointment to be made via a simple parliamentary majority, rather than a two-thirds majority.

“We have a Standards Commissioner who washes his hands from investigations, or else carried out frivolous investigations without going into detail as he is required to do by law,” the PN said.

In a reply, the Labour Party said that the Opposition tries to demolish institutions when they decide against its wishes. When institutions decide in its favour, the Opposition quotes them to attack others on a political level. When they decide against it, it uses tactics aimed to create pressure on the institution.

This is what the PN and its establishment does, the PL said. This is not only happening in the case of the Standards Commissioner, but with regard to all other institutions, the PL said.