Darren Carabott set to chair Public Accounts Committee again
Carabott has chaired the committee since 2022
Opposition MP Darren Carabott is set to retain his role as chair of parliament's Public Accounts Committee throughout the upcoming legislature.
Carabott has chaired the committee since 2022. In a Facebook post on Friday morning, Carabott confirmed that he would continue to serve in the role.
Party sources say Carabott is likely to be joined by Graham Bencini, who also served on the committee throughout the last legislature.
A third, as yet unknown, opposition MP will replace Mario de Marco on the committee, with the latter having resigned from politics.
Meanwhile, the government is yet to announce its own members on the committee.
Throughout the last legislature, Ramona Attard, Glenn Bedingfield, Alex Muscat and Amanda Spiteri Grech were the government’s representatives on the PAC.
While Attard and Muscat could well retain their spots, Spiteri Grech has since lost her parliamentary seat.
Bedingfield is also unlikely to feature, now that he has been promoted to the cabinet. In 2023, then-speaker Anġlu Farrugia ruled that cabinet members should not form part of the committee.
The PAC is widely considered one of parliament’s most important committees, tasked with the duty to examine reports from the auditor general and scrutinise public spending.
It is also the only parliamentary committee chaired by an opposition MP, despite the government retaining a majority on the seven-seat committee.
Throughout the past legislature, the PAC garnered widespread public interest as it probed some of Malta’s most heated political issues, including the Electrogas energy contract, the Fortina land deal, and Malta Film Commission contracts.
PAC hearings featured testimony from some of Malta’s most prominent figures, from a rowdy hearing involving former prime minister Joseph Muscat, to a more taciturn showing from Yorgen Fenech.