Family Minister Michael Falzon chose not to comment about the Panama Papers affair as his own resignation was still fresh in his mind, he told an inquiry on Monday.

Ministers have testified that then-prime minister Joseph Muscat had solicited views after the 2016 data leak revealed that his chief of staff Keith Schembri and minister Konrad Mizzi had opened secret offshore structures while in office. 

Falzon, who had stepped down from cabinet months earlier, said that he had declined to express an opinion about the matter, as his own resignation was still a sore point at that stage.

Falzon had resigned as parliamentary secretary for planning in January 2016 following a scandal over a government property deal in Valletta which made developer Mark Gaffarena millions. 

The minister, who is now responsible for family affairs, children’s rights and social solidarity, told an inquiry into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia that he felt “very uncomfortable” when revelations concerning Dubai company 17 Black emerged. 

Times of Malta and Reuters had revealed in November 2018 that the company, which was named as a source of funds for Schembri and Mizzi’s offshore firms, was owned by business mogul and Electrogas investor Yorgen Fenech. 

Fenech stands accused of complicity in Caruana Galizia’s murder. 

Falzon said he had never met or spoken to Fenech, though he said the entrepreneur may have been present during a meeting with a group of entrepreneurs concerning land reclamation. 

The minister denied any knowledge of a “kitchen cabinet” which ran the Muscat government behind the scenes and said that while Schembri wielded power as the OPM chief of staff, the two had never clashed and “he never forced me to do something I didn’t want to”. 

He defended his decision to vote along party lines and back Mizzi in a confidence vote in parliament, saying the vote was a party decision and he would do the same against with the benefit of hindsight. 

Asked about his forced resignation following a National Audit Office report into the Gaffarena property deal, Falzon said that he had shouldered responsibility for conclusions of a report which he contested. 

Falzon downplayed any suggestion that he was close to Gaffarena, saying that having managed Bank of Valletta’s contracts department, “there was not one entrepreneur in Malta I did not know”. 

As for allegations that he had been on a hunting trip with Gaffarena, Falzon explained that there had been one such trip where he had joined some twelve other hunting enthusiasts on an organized trip. 

“Mark Gaffarena happened to be one of them and that was much earlier,” Falzon explained, when he was still working at the bank. 

Falzon was also asked about the phantom job handed out to Melvin Theuma, one month before Falzon took over the Social Solidarity portfolio. 

He said that the contract had never been signed and that he had no idea who Theuma was. He only got to know about the contract through the media. 

As for the early election date in 2017, Falzon said that he only got to know on May 1 when Joseph Muscat had made the announcement at a mass rally. 

Muscat’s announcement last week that he was quitting parliament caught him by surprise, Falzon said. 

The inquiry continues on Wednesday.