PN MP and Public Accounts Committee chairman Darren Carabott said that Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo’s position as a member in the Public Accounts Committee is “untenable”.

Carabott was speaking to The Malta Independent on Sunday, as PAC chairman, after Opposition leader Bernard Grech called for the immediate resignation of Bartolo from the PAC. Grech said that if Bartolo does not resign, then the Prime Minister must remove him.

Last Tuesday, Bartolo was caught passing on a list of questions that were to be asked to a witness who had been summoned by the PAC. The witness, economist Gordon Cordina, received an attached document from Bartolo with “indicative” questions ahead of the sitting.

The Speaker of the House, Anglu Farrugia, was then requested by Carabott to give a ruling in Parliament on the matter. The Speaker ruled that Minister Clayton Bartolo was in breach of protocol and was “incorrect” to have not followed procedures.

Farrugia, in his ruling, said that the committee itself can give an informal indication of the line of questioning to a witness beforehand, provided this is done by the committee itself, and not on the individual initiative of a member on the committee.

Carabott said he endorsed the Opposition leader’s call for Bartolo’s resignation from the PAC.

“As party leader, just after the ruling by the Speaker was delivered, Grech convened the (PN’s) PAC members and we immediately supported his stance, before he publicly declared it in his speech,” Carabott said.

“Minister Bartolo’s position is untenable in the PAC. He has been a member of the PAC since 2017, and he knows what the procedure is. He cannot plead ignorance of the rules on this matter,” Carabott said.

He continued that to add insult to injury, Cordina was the first witness proposed by government members to give his testimony in the PAC Electrogas contracts’ investigation. Bartolo, the only minister on the committee, was selected by the government to lead the questions on its behalf.

“On his first test, he [Bartolo] personally reached out to the witness and informed him beforehand of what he was going to be asked,” Carabott said.

He said that Bartolo tried to “meddle with the system” and influence the outcome.

Carabott said that if Bartolo wanted to reach out to the witness, then there are the appropriate channels through Parliament.

“That is why we have rules and guidelines – as the Speaker quoted in his ruling – which have not been respected by the minister. That is why his position is untenable,” Carabott said.

Carabott also reiterated that the PN will issue a number of proposals to strengthen and change the current PAC guidelines. In an interview with this newsroom earlier this year, Carabott had said that the Nationalist Party is drafting proposals to strengthen the role of the PAC.

The PN will also propose introducing legal obligations for the committee to draft recommendations following its investigations, and removing the ability of members of Cabinet to sit on the committee, both of which the party is open for consultation on.

“One of our proposals is to exclude executive members (that is, ministers, parliamentary secretaries) from the PAC committee, as this would strengthen the checks and balances which are so direly needed between the Legislative and the Executive branches of our State,” Carabott said.

He continued that with the current composition of the PAC, the principle of separation of powers is not being respected.

“A minister can never investigate something which his colleagues had done and he himself might have voted in favour of during Cabinet,” Carabott said.

In his ruling, the Speaker did in fact take some note of this, saying that government ministers should not be made permanent members of the committee, and only be substituted when an MP on the committee is absent.

Farrugia had also said that while it did not seem that there was a conflict of interest between Cordina and Bartolo, ministers sitting on the committee could pose a conflict-of-interest risk, as the more prominent government members end up scrutinising their own actions.