Updated 3pm, adds leader of the House reply

The Nationalist Party has called for parliament to convene urgently on Monday to debate the benefits fraud scandal.  

Times of Malta revealed last Sunday that  former Labour MP Silvio Grixti, a popular family doctor, has been implicated in a years-long racket to help “hundreds” of people receive monthly disability benefits they were not entitled to.

The claimants received monthly payments averaging €450 from the social security department.

One claimant has since told Times of Malta that a Labour Party canvasser and a former minister’s aide lured him into the racket in return for his vote and a kickback amounting to a year’s worth of benefits.

The PN said on Sunday that the scandal had benefitted the Labour Party to the detriment of the rest of the Maltese and Gozitans. These benefits were abusively distributed by the Labour government.

In a letter to the Speaker, PN leader Bernard Grech described the situation as “unprecedented”.

The reveleations, which were the result of journalistic work, clearly indicated that the racket operated from the Office of the Prime Minister at Castille, Grech said.

He said that if the prime minister really has democracy at heart, the matter should be debated with urgency in Parliament as soon as possible.

In a reply, leader of the House Chris Fearne said the PN's letter was baseless and ignored the most basic facts.

The government, he said, had already appointed a board to evaluate the award of the severe disability benefit and this board's report would immediately be tabled and scheduled for a debate in Parliament.

Fearne said facts showed that it was the Prime Minister himself, who, back in 2021, had referred the case to the police. This was the best proof that the OPM was not willing to tolerate any illegality, contrary to the allegations the leader of the Opposition was making in his letter.

It was also ironic that the request was made by a leader of the Opposition who, when faced with the most serious accusations, had failed to do anything.

Moreover, when it became known how the police investigations were developing, the Prime Minister immediately took the political decisions that were needed without delay.

The police were investigating what the media had reported and the government again appealed to those who had the necessary proof against those who abused to take this to the police. This was the only way that justice could be done.

In the past years, Fearne said, the government had reduced dependence on social benefits by increasing work and introducing incentives to encourage the people to work.

It also attacked benefit abuse. There were now around 60% less people than there had been under the Nationalist government who were dependent on social benefits, Fearne said.