Three Nationalist Party MPs want parliament’s public appointments committee to ensure the government follows the letter of the law in the way it appoints a new Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit chairman.

In a letter to committee chairman and Labour MP Anthony Agius Decelis dated Friday November 6, Karol Aquilina, Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici and Clyde Puli said that the government was trying to sneak through the FIAU appointment.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna informed the parliamentary committee this week that Jesmond Gatt had been appointed chairman of the FIAU. According to the law, the committee should be informed of nominees, which are then grilled by MPs before they can assume their post.

The PN MPs said that Gatt’s appointment was, therefore, an abuse of committee rules, irrespective of his suitability for the role.

They also noted that according to the law, it was the Prime Minister, not the Finance Minister, who was responsible for appointing the FIAU chair.

“We expect public appointments committee processes to follow the law,” the MPs said.

“As committee members, we expect you to defend this committee and insist on procedures being followed,” they told Agius Decelis.

PN leader Bernard Grech had slammed the way in which Gatt was appointed as "illegal" earlier this week.