Updated 4.15pm with PL statement
Parliament’s ethics chief has been asked to investigate Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi’s tax filings.
Jason Micallef, the chairman of Labour’s media arm ONE, wrote to Standards in Public Life Commissioner George Hyzler asking him to probe whether Azzopardi had breached ethics rules when it came to his tax filings.
Writing on Facebook on Saturday morning, Micallef said he had reported the matter to Hyzler "as a private citizen and in the national interest."
Emails seen by Times of Malta suggest Hyzler is already aware of the situation, and has been since at least November 2020.
Labour media this week accused Azzopardi of not having filed a tax return for his 2018 income. The claim was first published by ONE, which obtained tax returns by filing a request through parliament.
Speaking on Friday, Labour whip Glenn Bedingfield said the matter exposed Azzopardi as being "false" and a "hypocrite".
The report came shortly after Azzopardi alleged that permanent public secretary Mario Cutajar had abused his power to intimidate a former high-ranking inland revenue official in 2013. Cutajar has denied the claim.
One day after that story broke, Prime Minister Robert Abela told reporters that Azzopardi had made the claims because he knew that a "serious story" would soon expose him as a hypocrite.
Azzopardi has defended himself saying that he had not filed tax returns on time because separation proceedings between himself and his wife had made it impossible to do so.
He had filed returns for 2018 and 2019 with the tax department last January and was now waiting for the department to process them and split them into separate accounts, as is standard practice in such cases, he said.
Emails seen by Times of Malta show that the Standards Commissioner has been informed of Azzopardi's tax situation since at least November 2020, when Azzopardi informed the parliamentary clerk of delays in filing returns due to his marital separation and consented to his tax information being shared with the Standards Commissioner. The email exchange was forwarded to Hyzler's office.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party on Saturday accused Opposition leader Bernard Grech of lacking the moral standing to take action on the matter because of his own history of unpaid taxes.
The party said Azzopardi's behaviour was an insult to hardworking citizens who had ensured their taxes were paid despite separation procedures.