The Labour Party's members on the Public Accounts Committee voted to stop chasing for information the PAC had requested earlier this February to look into the Malta Film Commission's unexplained spending of €7.2 million in government funds allocated between 2019 and 2022.

The vote was taken Wednesday following a ruling given Monday by the Speaker of the House, Anġlu Farrugia, giving the PAC permission - should it so wish - to summon the Malta Film Commissioner, Johann Grech, once again to provide full details on how €7.2 million in government funds were spent by the Film Commission.

With a majority of four MPs on the seven-member committee, the PAC has now decided against summoning Grech to testify before the committee.

The PAC began looking into this matter following the publication of an NAO report in November 2024 which flagged that only €2.4 million from a total of €7.2 million had been spent, leaving €4.8 million unaccounted for as deferred income on the Malta Film Commission's accounts. The NAO had stated in its report that despite this lacuna, the Malta Film Commission had only declared €1.2 million in current assets plus some €800,000 in cash through its bank accounts, thus leaving question marks over the remaining €4 million.

During the plenary session of Wednesday, 22 October 2025, PAC Chairman Darren Carabott had told the Parliament that to investigate the National Audit Office's findings, the PAC had requested the Malta Film Commission to provide documents confirming the dates of payment, considerations, who was paid, and a copy of all invoices vis-à-vis this €7.2 million.

After requesting this information earlier this February, the Film Commission replied by sending the PAC a breakdown of its amounts and its reference number, though the rest of the sought information was not provided.

Fast-forward to this most recent PAC meeting on early Wednesday afternoon, and PL MP Alex Muscat stated that the PL Government is "satisfied" with the response the PAC received from the Film Commission. He continued that "we do not feel that we need to call for the Film Commissioner again".

Muscat observed that Film Commissioner had already spoken before the PAC "for over two hours" previously, and that while "we are not stopping anyone from carrying out investigations," he commented that "we don't want to extend any subject unnecessarily".

PAC Chairman Carabott had called for the Committee to respect its past agreement to get its hands on the information it requested earlier this February. He commented that he couldn't understand the Committee's change of heart, from the government's side, to suddenly stop chasing this pending information.

PN MP David Agius pleaded for the Committee to keep chasing for the information to be provided and told the Committee that "just because you say you're satisfied, that doesn't mean that the whole PAC is satisfied."

PN MP David Agius said that if the PAC voted to stop chasing this information, then this would be opening a "very dangerous" precedent for the Public Accounts Committee and its future. He said that it is the PAC's responsibility to scrutinise how public funds are spent, and therefore, if the PAC voted in against calling for Film Commissioner Johann Grech to testify about the requested information, then the Committee would essentially be stripping itself of its own function, noting that it was the PAC itself that voted to request this information from the Malta Film Commission in the first place.

PN MP Graham Bencini said that it was not true that the information the PAC had requested had arrived. Bencini added that if this were true, then Speaker Farrugia would have made it clear in his ruling.

After this vote was confirmed, PL MP Alex Muscat remarked that if no additional information was pending "then this subject has been closed."

Present for this PAC meeting on Wednesday were its chairperson Darren Carabott, David Agius, and Graham Bencini from the Opposition, and Alex Muscat, Ramona Attard, Amanda Spiteri Grech, and Government Whip Naomi Cachia.