Trafigura agent Naeem Ahmed cannot be compelled by an arrest warrant to testify in front of the Public Accounts Committee as long as he is out of Malta.

Moreover, the Speaker cannot order his arraignment on a charge of failing to attend when summoned by the committee.

Speaker Anġlu Farrugia delivered this ruling yesterday following a request for direction by the committee’s chairman Jason Azzopardi (PN).

Trafigura is an oil company that was represented by George Farrugia, who was given a presidential pardon to tell all he knows on alleged wrongdoings in oil procurement by Enemalta under an earlier administration.

The government wants to bring Mr Ahmed to testify before the PAC as it reviews the Auditor General’s report entitled An Analysis of the Effectiveness of the Enemalta Corporation’s Fuel Procurement.

Dr Azzopardi said the Attorney General’s advice had been sought after the committee’s repeated efforts to summon Mr Ahmed failed.

Last Friday, the AG informed the committee that the matter should be referred to the Speaker.

Committees sitting abroad cannot exercise a power formally to send for persons, papers and records

Minister Edward Zammit Lewis had asked the Speaker for direction and to take measures to ascertain Mr Ahmed would testify.

On November 18, 2015 the PAC sent a registered letter to Mr Ahmed at Trafigura’s offices in Switzerland, asking him to appear on November 30. He did not turn up and several attempts were made to trace his personal e-mail.

Last Tuesday, Parliament received an unsigned acknowledgment of the previous November’s e-mail that stated the PAC’s request had been forwarded to “the appropriate person who will follow up in due time”.

Dr Farrugia noted that the House of Representatives Ordinance, as the applicable law, refers to situations when the witness was within the Maltese jurisdiction.

He quoted from Erskine May: “Committees sitting abroad cannot exercise a power formally to send for persons, papers and records. Nor are witnesses summoned from overseas to give evidence.”

Reference was made to the situation in July 2014 when Giovanni Kessler, OLAF director general, was called to testify in front of the Parliament’s Privileges Committee.

Then, the Speaker’s legal adviser had said there was no provision in Maltese law to order witnesses abroad to appear.