PN pushes for Auditor General probe into ousted Għargħur mayor
PL overturned the Għargħur council after PN MP resigned from party but kept her seat
The ousted mayor of Għargħur wants the Auditor General to investigate her over claims of financial mismanagement made by Labour councillors and an independent councillor that led to her removal.
Gauci has formally requested that the Auditor General investigate the allegations made against her by the Labour Party following her removal from office through an anti-democratic manoeuvre orchestrated by Robert Abela, the PN said in a statement on Friday.
During a council meeting on Thursday, Gauci also proposed a motion calling for a financial investigation by the Auditor General’s office, the PN said.
The PL councillors and independent councillor Francesca Attard refused the motion, saying the director general for local councils should investigate, the statement said.
"This is the same official who, just last week, appeared on the Labour Party’s media station Super One to discuss the Għargħur case before even conducting any form of inquiry," the PN said.
Gauci was recently ousted from the Għargħur mayorship after Attard, who resigned from the PN in April, voted alongside the locality’s two PL councillors to remove the mayor.
That motion also called for PL councillor Mariah Meli to become mayor of the PN-leaning town.
The PN have called the move an attack on democracy, pointing out that 62 per cent of the town voted for the Nationalist Party during last June’s councils election.
The PL, however, says the motion was needed because of severe financial mismanagement and good governance issues in Gauci’s mayorship.
The PN said the Labour Party is now uncomfortable with an independent investigation into their claims.
"Instead, they instructed their councillors, who hijacked the majority in Għargħur, to alter the motion to involve the government directly."