Updated 6.15pm, adds PN statement

Nationalist Party MP Joe Ellis breached the Constitution by not disclosing his financial interest in companies benefiting from government work, a Labour Party minister charged on Wednesday.

Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri said Ellis had asked parliamentary questions about projects that his own company was benefiting from and argued that the PN MP should be made to resign.

“Ellis was asking questions about himself. If you are going to ask about specific projects, you should at least disclose that you have a financial interest in them,” Camilleri said of his parliamentary colleague.

The issue was first raised by Labour newspaper KullĦadd and later picked up by Illum, which reported last Sunday that Ellis had refused to resign when asked to do so by PN leader Bernard Grech.

Illum reported that Ellis’ family business, Gozo Concrete Products Ltd., was behind on payments to contractors and workers and had bartered tens of thousands of concrete bricks as payment to a contractor working on a public road project in Għajnsielem.

Ellis, who represents the 13th district, had asked a parliamentary question about the pace of works in that project.

The PN MP has since said that he had no idea who the contractor involved in that project was.

Both Ellis and PN leader Grech have dismissed calls from the Labour media for the MP to step aside.

Speaking on Wednesday, Labour minister Clint Camilleri and backbencher Andy Ellul both argued that Ellis should be made to resign.

Camilleri said Ellis was in breach of article 55 of the Constitution and that, as the PN’s spokesperson for constitutional reform, he was well aware of this.

Article 55 stipulates the conditions under which an MP should vacate his or her seat. Among those provisions is one that forbids MPs from being directors or managers in companies that are providing works or merchandise to the government, without having disclosed that interest to the Speaker.

An excerpt from Article 55 of Malta's constitution.

“This exposes the PN’s hypocrisy,” said Camilleri.

Ellul said it was clear Ellis had no intention of resigning and alleged that the MP had "pressured" Grech to "not act". 

"Grech told us it's 'case closed'. But many questions remain unanswered," Ellul said. 

Ellis entered parliament in late 2020, following the death of Gozitan MP Frederick Azzopardi.

PN statement

In a statement, the Nationalist Party said Labour's "made-up story" on Ellis was typical of what the party did when in a state of panic - create a lie on someone else to deviate attention.

It said that the company in which Ellis is a shareholder has never had a government contract on the road in question but only supplied bricks to one of the main contractors in Gozo, who could have used the bricks wherever he wanted.

This meant that, contrary to what Camilleri had claimed, the Constitution had not been breached.

And the accusation that there was a conflict of interest did not make sense because, when he spoke in Parliament, Ellis had in fact criticised the length of time the project was taking.

Rather than accuse Ellis of breaching the Constitution, the PN said, Prime Minister Robert Abela should reply to questions regarding "his business with a criminal gang" and be clear on whether he had breached the Constitution himself wearing so many different hats while being a member of Parliament.