The Nationalist Party has asked the Speaker of the House of Representatives to investigate Education Minister Clifton Grima after the Standards Commissioner refused to do so.

The PN is requesting an investigation into the content of replies the minister gave to parliamentary questiins.

The PN is alleging that the minister misled the House in his answers regarding the publication of an auditing report that should have taken place and on which a decision on a five-year extension of the licence for the American University of Malta was determined in August 2022.

In his reply, the minister referred to a report based on an institutional audit that took place in October 2020, which he said was available on the internet. This report was already the basis on which a decision had been taken, in 2021, that the licence is extended by just one year because, according to this audit, the AUM had failed.

The PN said that the Speaker should carry out his duties in search of the truth. MPs have the right to receive truthful answers to PQs they submit.

In a ruling given in August, The Standards Commissioner said that replies to parliamentary questions that are considered to be misleading should be investigated by the Speaker, not by him.