On Friday the PN claimed the government was trying to "cover up" the benefits racket and questioned why a potential whistleblower was being ignored.
The party was reacting to calls by Roger Agius, a former driver and canvasser for junior minister Andy Ellul for a magisterial inquiry into the social benefits racket.
In a judicial protest filed in court on Thursday, Agius claimed that he had been ignored by the Whistleblower Officer within the Prime Minister’s Office when in November and again in December he offered to spill the beans on the racket, including the people behind it, the modus operandi as well as details on other wrongdoings.
Times of Malta had revealed that the racket was being investigated in September - two months before Agius is alleged to have written to the Prime Minister.
"On Thursday we learnt that the ex-chauffeur of Parliamentary Secretary Andy Ellul seems to have participated in the racket and is ready to uncover and reveal what he describes as a criminal organisation geared at purchasing votes for the party in government,” PN MP Mark Anthony Sammut said on Friday.
“This is no longer just a story where Castille could have been an accomplice. We’re also talking about a case where the government could be involved in a cover-up," Sammut said.
Whenever Agius tried to reveal anything, he found the government’s door closed, Sammut added.
“Why isn’t Prime Minister Robert Abela taking all the steps so that everyone involved in this ‘criminal organisation’ - as this person puts it - is taken to court,” Sammut asked.
Describing the contents of the judicial protest as “shocking”, Sammut pointed to claims that a government minister, a parliamentary secretary and several members of the public were complicit in "defrauding the public coffers of tens of millions of euro, acting with utmost impunity”.
Sammut also noted how Agius claimed that someone from within the top echelons of the police had informed a cabinet minister about his interrogation.
“What are the police doing about this alleged leak,” he asked.
Sammut was speaking alongside PN MEP candidate Louise Anne Pulis.
On Thursday evening Robert Abela said that Agius was requesting whistleblower status to avoid criminal action.
“I understand that one way or another and, through his lawyer, he is seeing how he can obtain immunity from criminal procedures,” Abela said.
The Whistleblower Act empowers prosecutors to press charges against individuals seeking whistleblower status if they are suspected of being an accomplices to the crime.
The act also allows the courts to exempt the accused from punishment if they are convicted.