Robert Abela is "seriously considering" removing members from the Public Accounts Committee after the parliament's speaker, Anġlu Farrugia, ruled that members should ideally not be ministers or parliamentary secretaries. 

Of the government's four members in the committee, Clayton Bartolo and Andy Ellul have a role in cabinet.

On Thursday, Abela said that the speaker recommended that the PAC should not have executive committee members because the committee's job is to scrutinise the government's actions. 

"The suggestion, in my opinion, makes sense. It reflects the investigative nature of this committee (PAC), and I believe I should seriously consider it," Abela said. 

The speaker's ruling came after Bartolo sent questions to a witness ahead of his testimony. Abela defended Bartolo's actions.

Bartolo was found to have failed to act in line with the procedure when he provided a draft of his questions to economist and Bank of Valletta chairman Gordon Cordina before the latter testified.

The speaker ruled that while the committee can give a witness an informal indication of the line of questioning beforehand, an individual member of the committee should not do so. 

After the ruling, Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech called on Bartolo to resign from the PAC. 

But, fielding questions from the media, the prime minister defended Bartolo, who was standing by his side on Thursday morning. 

"I want to see members who scrutinise the subjects they have in front of them, members who prepare themselves for their work, who show enthusiasm, and that's what Clayton Bartolo showed.

"He is doing his work as an MP well, to add to the good work he is doing as tourism minister, and he definitely has my full support,"  Abela said. 

Abela added that the minister was allowed to send questions to a witness but these should have gone through the committee instead of directly.