The Nationalist Party has called out police commissioner Angelo Gafà for refusing to answer a parliamentary committee's questions about investigations into the Electrogas power station deal. 

Gafà was asked by PN members of the Public Accounts Committee whether the police force has started investigating the deal, following a report by the National Audit Office into the contract. 

In a press conference on Wednesday, PN PAC members Darren Carabott, David Agius and Graham Bencini said they had sent Gafà questions after Labour members blocked him from testifying before the committee.

They asked Gafà whether he or any police officer has summoned, questioned or investigated any MP or government official over an Auditor General report that found a number of shortcomings in the Electrogas deal.

They said that in a letter sent to them earlier this month, Gafà refused to answer the questions, saying that doing so would prejudice evidence related to a confidential investigation.

"The commissioner chose to repeat the government's political rhetoric. This was the same excuse that Labour MPs in the committee used to vote down his testimony," the PN members said.

They however noted that the commissioner's vague reply "indirectly confirmed there is an investigation over the Electrogas deal."

Former police commissioners had testified before the PAC in the past, the PN MPs said, and Gafà himself had appeared before the committee in 2014, when he was a police inspector working on a different investigation. 

The MPs insisted their invitation to the commissioner remains open. 

The PAC is questioning witnesses as it assesses the findings of a major probe by the NAO into the power station deal, which saw the Electrogas consortium controversially awarded a contract by the government to build a gas-fired power station.

That NAO probe resulted in a 500-page report which found a number of shortcomings in the selection process for that project and concluded that the due diligence process was “insufficient”, among other things.

The report found the Electrogas bid did not comply with minimum requirements for the contract to build the gas-fired power station and supply LNG to Enemalta.

Questions sent to Gafa after Labour MPs blocked his testimony

Last June, Nationalist members of the PAC wanted the police commissioner to testify at one of the Electrogas hearings, but Labour members voted the idea down.

This prompted the Nationalist MPs - Darren Carabott, David Agius and Graham Bencini - to send out a letter with a few questions to Gafà last November, hoping they would get a reply that way instead.

They asked him:

• Whether the police have investigated the Electrogas contracts or taken other actions, and if so, to say whether the investigations are still open;
• Whether the police have contacted, questioned or interrogated MPs, former MPs, persons involved in politics, government officials, civil servants and other government employees on the contracts; and
• Whether during such questioning or investigations, any of the officials refused to answer any question, request for information or refused to collaborate with the police or exercised their right not to incriminate themselves.

They also asked Gafà whether he would be willing to testify before the PAC and whether he or any member of the force have received a copy of the report from the Auditor General's office.

Gafà replied to the three PN MPs on January 6, writing in a letter that he would not answer any questions as police investigations are, by their nature, confidential and his replies would prejudice the evidence.

"It would therefore not be wise to publish that which is confidential," he wrote, closing off the four-line letter.