Parliament has become toothless as ministers and public servants are not being held accountable, Opposition leader Bernard Grech said on Monday.  

Addressing a special sitting to mark 100 years of the Maltese parliament, Grech said the house was failing in its duty to hold the government and state entities to account. 

He said it was time for representatives of the police, the financial services watchdog and other players to be brought before parliament to explain what led to Malta being put on a so-called FATF grey list of untrustworthy jurisdictions.  

Likewise, others should be brought to answer for the findings of a public inquiry into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The inquiry, headed by former and sitting members of the judiciary, found that the state should bear responsibility for the assassination.  

Grech said it was unacceptable that a sitting MP – Konrad Mizzi – was showing contempt for the electorate by repeatedly failing to appear before a committee tasked with reviewing the controversial Electrogas power station deal.  

Similarly, the public expects former prime minister Joseph Muscat to be brought before parliament. 

“This chamber should respect itself and ensure that the people’s right to request accountability is upheld,” he said.    

Rulings by the speaker, Grech charged, were being used as an excuse to evade accountability.  

This type of scrutiny, Grech said, ought to come from both sides of the house. 

However, backbenchers were not holding ministers to account. 

“Look at the government’s backbench. They are all chairpersons of public entities or consultants on salaries higher than their colleagues who hold cabinet positions and who they are meant to scrutinise,” he said.   

As complaints rumbled from MPs from across the aisle, Grech said government members may very well not like what he had to say, but it did not make it any less important.   

Grech also reiterated his call from the opposition to be given more resources to be able to carry out research and better meet its role as an alternative government.   

On his part, Speaker Anglu Farrugia looked back at the changes that had been introduced during his tenure. 

Parliament had not only moved into a new building, but the house’s work was now being shared more openly with the public, he said. 

Sittings are streamed and televised and soon the house will be inaugurating new archives, he said.