Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi demanded an explanation on Wednesday over how the Egrant inquiry had not been reopened despite an order made by the magistrate who carried out the inquiry into Pilatus Bank.

Speaking in Parliament, Azzopardi observed that Magistrate Ian Farrugia had called for the reopening of the Egrant inquiry to establish whether particular financial transfers to Pilatus Bank had been made.

The Egrant inquiry was held by then Magistrate Aaron Bugeja. It investigated whether then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his wife were the ultimate beneficiaries of funds from the Panama-registered secret company Egrant. A report issued in July 2018 found no evidence that they were involved.

The magisterial inquiry into Pilatus Bank looked into potential criminal wrongdoing by employees at the bank. It was launched just before the bank was shut down by the European Central Bank in November 2018 and concluded last December at a cost of €7.5m.

Azzopardi said the Attorney General was legally obliged to immediately comply with the magistrate's order about the reopening of the Egrant inquiry, and yet nothing had happened. 

Although the magistrate who held the Egrant inquiry had since been made a judge, the inquiry had to be assigned to another magistrate.

That this had not happened showed yet again how the national institutions had been grabbed by the government and impunity was continuing to reign, the Nationalist MP said.

He made his remarks during a debate on a bill that will enable the transfer of public sector workers to work in the parliamentary service without losing any of their work conditions in the public service.

Azzopardi said that while the opposition agreed with the bill, it was a mere drop in the ocean compared to what was needed for the country to be a truly functioning parliamentary democracy.

Malta was in a situation where MPs, notable the opposition, had absolutely no support to help them in their parliamentary work.

And the opposition was being repeatedly ignored by the government even in what were described as national events. 

Cases in point were how the government launched a 'national' consultation process on the employment strategy, but then ignored the opposition's readiness to participate.  

Another recent example was how the opposition was ignored when the report of the 'national' Productivity Board was launched.  

And such evident arrogance was accompanied by the culture of impunity as evidenced as recently as this very day, when Labour MPs could not even bring themselves to censure former minister Konrad Mizzi for ignoring a summons to appear before the Public Accounts Committee.  What did Mizzi know about them, what sort of blackmail was going on? The people would learn, in due time, how money moved between Yorgen Fenech, Konrad Mizzi and the Labour Party.

Azzopardi said the government had tried to kill off the inquiry report on the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia after a hurried debate in the House the day after it was made public. 

The report confirmed the impunity which existed in the country. It called for legislation against abuse of power and against government business being conducted on private e-mails, And yet nothing was done, because the government itself was the personification of abuse of power.  The report also called for the introduction of Unexplained Wealth Orders but again this was not introduced, maybe because some ministers would have a problem to explain their wealth, such a €2.3m house.  

How could anyone expect the country to be taken off the FATF greylist when the government was leading by example where impunity was concerned, Azzopardi asked. 

Other speakers included Nationalist MP Karol Aquilina who called for changes to parliamentary standing orders to oblige ministers to reply adequately to parliamentary questions.

The orders and guidelines of standing committees should also be amended to remove the possibility of MPs failing to appear before the Public Accounts Committee, as Konrad Mizzi had done earlier in the day. MPs were the people who should be the most answerable to parliament, he insisted.

Aquilina also suggested that the chairmen of all House committees should be opposition MPs, as is the case with the Public Accounts Committee. That would ensure that the committees met more frequently and were more effective in their scrutiny of the government, he said. 

Nationalist MP David Agius called for the introduction of Prime Minister's Question time. He also suggested that the various state commissioners - such as the Commissioner for Children and the Commissioner for Animal Welfare, should be answerable to parliament and not ministers. 

He also insisted that parliament should allocate time for opposition motions. 

A decision should also be taken on whether MPs should be part-time or full time, and they should be compensated adequately, accordingly.  

He also suggested a parliamentary Facebook page where sittings could be streamed, as is the case on the parliamentary TV channel. 

Minister says he will not interfere in Attorney General's work

Replying later with reference to Azzopardi’s remarks, Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said that the Attorney General is autonomous and he would not interfere in the appreciation of the evidence presented to her by the inquiring magistrate. He insisted, however, that the facts showed that the institutions were working and the government was fighting crime, including financial crime. 

The government of Prime Minister Robert Abela had established rule of law as a pillar of his administration, he said, and his government had never interfered in the AG's work. 

The minister said he agreed with the need to improve support for MPs in parliament and to consider the issue of remuneration.