The post of CEO in the police force should be retained and can only be abolished by parliament, the Nationalist Party said on Tuesday.

Police commissioner Angelo Gafà has said that he intends to reform the police corp's structure and reports this week indicated that the CEO post is to be replaced with that of a director general.

The post of CEO became vacant when Gafà, who used to occupy it, became police commissioner.

In a statement on Tuesday, PN MPs Beppe Fenech Adami and Karol Aquilina expressed concern at the decision to scrap the post.

This could not happen without parliament's consent, they said, as the post was established by law. 

The post, the PN said, had been set up with the aim of allowing the commissioner to focus on the management and guidance of the force while the CEO would be in charge of operative and administrative matters.

The law did not give the minister or the commissioner the power to take the matter into their hands and abolish the post without parliament having debated this and amended the Police Act, the PN said.

Fenech Adami serves as PN spokesman for home affairs while Aquilina is its spokesman for good governance. 

Parliamentary debate 'if and where necessary' - ministry

In a reply, the Home Affairs Ministry told the two Opposition MPs that it would hold a parliamentary debate "if and where it is necessary".

The ministry said a transformation strategy for the force, backed by expert help and financed with EU funds, had been in the works for the past months. 

It said it would have been better had the Opposition discussed the matter first before seeking confrontation and politicising an important debate.