The opposition's no-confidence motion in three ministers will be presented to parliament in the coming days and will likely be debated on a day reserved for opposition business in parliament, according to the Nationalist Party whip.
That means it will probably be debate in the coming weeks, Robert Cutajar said.
The motion expresses no confidence in ministers Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, Miriam Dalli and Silvio Schembri in the wake of the damning conclusions of the public inquiry into the construction site death of Jean Paul Sofia. The PN is insisting that political, and not just administrative responsibility, needs to be shouldered for the tragedy.
Zrinzo Azzopardi was responsible for planning and the construction sector at the time of the incident, while Dalli and Schembri were responsible for state agencies INDIS and Malta Enterprise. Both agencies were found to have committed serious shortcomings in the way they allocated the public site and approved the project in 2019.
The public inquiry said the construction site was not regulated at the time and that the state should bear responsibility for that.
According to parliament’s rules, Cutajar said the opposition must give a week’s notice before the debate.
“That is unless both sides agree otherwise.”
The opposition has the chance to move a motion in parliament roughly twice a year, Cutajar said.
In its last opportunity, in July, the PN moved a motion that called for a public inquiry into Sofia’s death. Labour MPs had voted it down, only for the government to have a change of heart a few days later.
In a PN press conference on Tuesday, PN MP Ryan Callus said political responsibility must be shouldered by the government and especially by the ministers responsible for appointing the administrative heads who failed to maintain certain standards or take decisive action.
“This is the convenient way how the Labour government thinks. It gives the impression that the government is separate to these entities and authorities as if they never collaborate or take advice or instructions from the government,” Callus said.
“For us, this is unacceptable because the truth is there were huge shortcomings from the executive, and this was not limited to their authorities and their heads. The people in those positions all enjoyed the trust of the minister.
Contacted for comment, Labour whip Naomi Cachia said the Sofia public inquiry has already seen 20 hours of debate in parliament and during that time PN MPs have already made their points.
“We have no problem discussing the (no confidence) motion, however,” she said.
Cachia said the Labour parliamentary group had confidence in all three ministers.
On Monday, the Labour Party said the PN was resorting to political gimmicks whereas the government viewed the outcome of the public inquiry as a tool to carry out further reforms in the construction sector. The reforms included measures that had also been suggested to the last PN government but were shelved.
MPs on both the government and opposition benches are given the chance to move motions on Thursdays allocated for private parliamentary business.
Each side has three months to bring an issue to the House on a Thursday. When they do not, the baton is passed on to the other side.
“In this legislature, the government has always not taken up a Thursday, meaning we must always wait for three months to move a motion to parliament. Considering summer, Christmas and Easter recesses we have control of the agenda only twice a year,” Cutajar said.