The Nationalist Party and anti-corruption NGO Repubblika have hit back following comments made about them by Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà.

In an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday published last week, Police Commissioner Gafà had been asked whether he believes it was right to continue on in his post for a second term when so many - the PN and civil society - believe he shouldn't.

As part of his response, he said: "I am the first police commissioner who was appointed after a public call, and so I passed through a transparent selection process led by the Public Service Commission. Before my appointment, the Opposition chose not to attend for my parliamentary scrutiny, and so as they say, the morning shows the day. So I could have anticipated the attitude of the Opposition towards me over the past years. You made reference to civil society. I think we need to specify who the civil society you are referring to is, it is Repubblika, some of whose exponents, while I was going through the selection process, came out with the story that someone gave me a car. I had shown the news portal that published it that it was not true, but this shows that from the beginning there was antagonism against me."

This newsroom contacted the PN's Shadow Minister for Home Affairs Darren Carabott and Repubblika president Vicki Ann Cremona for their reactions to these statements.

"In my opinion they were unnecessary political comments by the Police Commissioner, who feels the need to address the Opposition in that way, even more so in the light of another interview he had given to academic Andrew Azzopardi, in which he had said that part of the work of the Police Force is to implement the policies of the PL government's electoral manifesto," Carabott said.

This was in reference to a statement Gafà had made, that "the Police Force, as part of the civil service, has to actuate the government's policies, and the policies normally emerge from the electoral manifesto".

Carabott feels that "at times it appeared as though the commissioner was almost boasting about how close to government politicians he is". But Carabott said that then, "on the other hand he feels comfortable criticising and passing certain comments against the Opposition".

"On the Vitals issue, the Opposition leader had held a surprise meeting with the Police Commissioner at the Police HQ, and Bernard Grech had told the media afterwards that he had confirmation that the police did not investigate the Vitals case. Soon after, Gafà said that the Opposition leader tried to put words in his mouth. So he felt that he was in a position to try and discredit the Opposition leader."

However, Carabott said that in court it was shown that what the Opposition leader said was true. Carabott said that there were police officers saying, under oath, that there had been no own-initiative investigation by the police.

On the commissioner's statement saying that he is working hand-in-hand with the magistrate, Carabott said that it is thanks to others, who filed a report, that an inquiry was held in the first place.

The PN MP said that the Police Commissioner had said that when criticism is made against him it should be done based on facts. "So let's state the facts. We have a Police Commissioner who did not investigate the Vitals case separately, who did not investigate Electrogas case separately, who did not investigate Pilatus well and actually worked hand-in-hand with the Attorney General to make the nolle prosequi after the magisterial inquiry, a Police Commissioner who did not even charge the big fish on the social benefits racket, the same Police Commissioner who did not charge the big fish regarding the driving licences scandal," Carabott said.

Carabott said, with regards to the Identità scandal, that in court it emerged that two years ago information was passed to Identità that a marriage certificate was false. "What did the police do in the past two years? That is a list of facts about his shortcomings, aside from the unnecessary political comments he made."

The PN MP then referred to his work as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). "We called upon him to appear before the PAC on Electrogas, and he refused by quoting the same line Labour MPs stated in the parliamentary sessions. Even if it was OK for him to appear in other PAC investigations years before."

Carabott referred to another incident regarding the PAC. The Nationalist Party MPs, who sit on the PAC, had formally asked Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà to investigate allegations of false testimony, following something former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri had said. During the meeting, "Keith Schembri, who was testifying under oath, alleged that both Edward Scicluna, the former finance minister who is currently the Governor of the Central Bank, as well as the former Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta, lied under oath while testifying before the public inquiry into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia," PN Graham Bencini said in a Facebook post at the time.

Carabott said that since filing that report, "the PN MPs on the Committee have not received anything to show that an investigation is taking place. If it were me, the first thing I would do is make contact with whoever made a report, who heard the live testimony and ask them to present the transcripts and any evidence. Not even that happened".

"All this shows that the position of the Police Commissioner has long been untenable," Carabott said. "The government should not have extended his post due to the shortcomings we saw."

Repubblika president Cremona, reacting to the Commissioner's statements made during the interview, wrote to this newsroom: "When reviewing Angelo Gafà's performance you should not need to quote us. Look instead at the EU Commission's rule of law report of this year. It states again that Malta has made 'no progress on establishing a robust track record of final judgements (in high-level corruption cases)'. The Commission has raised this point every year in its annual reports. Angelo Gafà (and others) are responsible for this failure. The prosecution of the Vitals case has started without Gafà lifting a finger but thanks to Repubblika's action in court. He has undermined that investigation as well as the investigations into Pilatus Bank, Electrogas, the Panama Papers, the Social Security fraud and now the ID cards fraud," she alleged. "We are an anti-corruption NGO. Part of our job is highlighting the failures of officials in institutions to fight corruption."

"In his interview he complains that we do not like him. The day he does his job and leads Malta's fight against corruption we'll be his biggest fans. Forgive us if due to his abysmal record we are not expecting that to happen any time soon," she said.