Infrastructure Minister Chris Bonett refused to provide information about four road works projects on Tuesday, despite being asked for very specific information about the publicly-funded works.
Bonett was asked by his Opposition counterpart to provide details about four separate road works projects across Malta.
In each case, PN infrastructure spokesperson Joe Giglio asked the minister to state when the project began, when it ended, how much it was originally expected to cost and how much was actually spent on the works.
On each of those four occasions, the minister provided a boilerplate reply that divulged none of that information.
Each of those projects, Bonett told parliament, “is part of the government’s plan to invest an unprecedented €700 million over seven years to improve road infrastructure. Infrastructure Malta continues to carry out one project after another to prepare Malta for the future; projects that pre-2013 governments did not have the will or vision to carry out.”
Giglio sought information about works to resurface the Malta International Airport ring road; Triq Manoel de Vilhena/Triq Carlo Manche in Gżira; Xatt ta’ Tigne in Gżira; and Triq San Ġwann, Ħamrun.
All four projects were carried out by Infrastructure Malta using taxpayer funds.
The seven-year period that the minister made reference to in his boilerplate reply technically ended this month; the €700m project was the cornerstone of Labour's campaign for the June 2017 general elections.
Erskine May, the UK parliamentary rulebook that forms the basis of parliamentary conduct and procedure, explicitly states that ‘ministers should be as open as possible with Parliament, refusing to provide information only when disclosure would not be in the public interest.”
A section of that book which guides ministers on how to reply to parliamentary questions also notes that “replies should be helpful and clear and not simply refer to material on an official website.”
Bonett, however, is unlikely to run into any trouble for having ignored the parliamentary questions asked of him: Speaker Anġlu Farrugia has repeatedly concluded that the Speaker of the House has no power to compel ministers to answer parliamentary questions, or to regulate the content of ministers’ replies to such questions.