The speaker is looking into the auditor general’s claim of intimidation by James Caterers, which could face court or be admonished if found to have breached parliamentary privilege.
Last week, Auditor General Charles Deguara accused the catering company of trying to intimidate the National Audit Office and influence an investigation into a controversial contract at the St Vincent de Paul facility.
In a letter to the NAO, James Caterers Ltd warned it would hold its officers personally responsible for any reputational damage that could stem from an audit into two tenders linked to the state home.
The NAO is assessing a 2015 tender that began as a request for meals and a kitchen at the Luqa residence for the elderly and morphed into a second project to extend the facility.
The auditor general said that after a meeting with a consortium that included the catering company and another firm that forms part of db Group, he received a letter from James Caterers, which he deemed to be “contempt of parliamentary proceedings”.
He maintained that the NAO’s work is privileged and wrote to parliament’s Public Accounts Committee to complain.
After receiving the auditor’s letter, PAC chair Beppe Fenech Adami said it was now up to the speaker of the House to decide whether the letter from James Caterers constituted breach of privilege or contempt of parliamentary proceedings.
Fenech Adami told a Public Accounts Committee meeting last week that the committee condemned any action that could be interpreted as intimidation towards the NAO’s operation.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Speaker told Times of Malta that the Speaker “has taken note of the point raised” by Fenech Adami about the letter from James Caterers.
“As is usual practice in such circumstances, he shall be considering whether the matter constitutes an offence in terms of Article 11(4) of the House of Representatives (Privileges and Powers) Ordinance and shall subsequently be delivering a ruling in the House about whether the issue amounts to a prima facie breach of privilege,” the spokesperson said.
If the speaker concludes that there has been a breach, he will then refer the matter to the Privileges Committee.
The committee would then investigate the matter and recommend to the speaker whether he should call on the police to take James Caterers to court or whether the company could be “adequately punished with an admonition”.