Prime Ministr Robert Abela has once again been caught in a lie, this time on chief executives, the Nationalist Party said Wednesday.

In November 2020, Abela declared that he would not accept chief executives of government agencies maintaining a private practice while occupying a role with the State, because they are well paid and should focus on the authority they lead. In March 2021, Abela announced that he had issued instructions for CEOs of government entities not to engage in any private business outside their public role.

Now that we know that an "exception" was made for Johann Buttigieg - who was himself reappointed by Abela to lead the Planning Authority - it is clear that the Prime Minister was concealing this arrangement. We also now know that, through what he said six years ago, he was lying to the public.

The Nationalist Party said it is asking Robert Abela whether similar exceptions were made for other Chief Executives. Abela must tell us whether there are other CEOs or Executive Chairpersons of government entities who were also allowed to continue with their private practice while being paid thousands of euros to lead the authorities under their responsibility.

It is clear that, once again, Robert Abela is not telling the truth, as has happened in several other cases, including:

in the case of the appointment of the Chief Justice - where we learnt from Wenzu Mintoff's sworn letter that Robert Abela had privately given him different reasons for not appointing him Chief Justice;

in the case of Matthew Caruana Galizia - who had to publicly contradict Robert Abela after the Prime Minister claimed he had spoken to his father, Peter;

in the case of the President of The Malta Chamber - who rebuked Robert Abela for giving the public the impression that everything was going smoothly, while behind closed doors the Finance Minister warned the social partners at the MCESD about the state of the economy and the public finances.

In the case of Johann Buttigieg, instead of recognising the seriousness of what had been revealed and defending the integrity of the institution, the Prime Minister also defended the Planning Authority Chairperson by seeking to justify his chats with Yorgen Fenech on the basis that we had known about them for some time and that nothing new had emerged when the media published their contents.

And now we have a senior Minister in Abela's Cabinet justifying the fact that the person leading the authority that is supposed to regulate planning is also the owner of a company providing consultancy services in the same sector, and which is involved in a public tender worth millions of euro.

Abela cannot continue lying to the public, the PN said. He must lead as a Prime Minister worthy of our country. He must take decisions in the national interest, not in his own personal political interest.