Opposition leader Joseph Muscat has alleged that between 1996 and 1998 outgoing Ambassador to the EU Richard Cachia Caruana tried to curry favour with members of the then-Labour government.
The allegation, which Dr Muscat made yesterday evening in the course of TV programme Dissett, adds further fuel to a fire started by Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando some weeks ago. Dr Pullicino Orlando had accused Mr Cachia Caruana of colluding with high-ranking officials of the 1996-1998 Labour-led administration – a claim Mr Cachia Caruana dismissed as “ridiculous”.
But yesterday Dr Muscat said he had investigated Dr Pullicino Orlando’s claim and established that Mr Cachia Caruana had approached different officials from the Labour government.
He did not elaborate and it remains unclear precisely what Mr Cachia Caruana is alleged to have been trying to achieve by these supposed approaches.
“I spoke to people involved in the 1996-1998 Administration, and it turns out that Mr Cachia Caruana on more than one occasion tried to curry favour with PL government officials,” Dr Muscat said, adding that the alleged attempts “did not necessarily succeed”.
Asked what the Prime Minister at the time, current Labour MP Alfred Sant, made of the claims, Dr Muscat said simply: “I think Dr Sant is aware [of the matter].”
He declined to elaborate, saying those involved would speak out if they wished to.
Mr Cachia Caruana denied the Opposition leader’s claims, describing them in a statement as “completely false and deceiving”.
“Dr Muscat is clearly uncomfortable with my role in past PN electoral successes and is therefore acting as an accomplice in these fabrications, in an attempt to have me eliminated from the PN’s upcoming electoral campaign,” Mr Cachia Caruana said.
In the course of the hour-long programme, Dr Muscat was asked about a number of issues, from recent political instability to the PL’s troubled relationship with Socialist International, the international umbrella group of left-leaning political parties.
The Opposition leader would not pronounce himself on the potential candidacies of Dr Sant or Jason Micallef, who currently heads PL media arm One Productions.
He refuted suggestions that the PL motions which led to the ousting of Mr Cachia Caruana and of former minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici were opportunistic. “The only difference between those motions and our previous motion calling for Education Minister Dolores Cristina to assume responsibility for the mismanagement of EU education funds is that these motions passed, while the previous one didn’t.
“We need to introduce a culture of responsibility in this country, and that needs to start from the very top,” Dr Muscat continued.
He delved into the PL’s uneasy relationship with Socialist International, which last year downgraded the PL to observer status due to non-payment of membership fees.
The non-payment was deliberate and had to do with differences between the perspectives of the European socialist bloc and those on other continents, Dr Muscat said.