Chief civil servant Mario Cutajar has denied claims of abuse of power and interference in police work to force a senior official at the Inland Revenue Department to resign. 

The claims were made in parliament by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi on Tuesday. He said the senior official was forced out of his job after being arrested on trumped-up allegations made in 2013.

Cutajar, who is Principal Permanent Secretary, said he was unreservedly denying the claims, which could not be further from the truth. He also insisted he never interfered in police work. 

Cutajar said this was the third time that the Nationalist MP had tried to tarnish him.

The first time was when he claimed he had put a relative on a government board. In actual fact, the person concerned was no relation, although he had the same surname.  

In the second case, it was alleged that he had employed a member of his family to a position of trust. That person had actually already been employed in the public service by the former administration.

Cutajar said that two cases were moved before him as head of the civil service in 2013.

The first involved tampering with exam results and the second was interference by an official of the previous government regarding abuse of the discretion of top tax officials to waive tax due.  

In both cases, and any other cases since, he had no contact with the police or interfered in their work, directly or indirectly, whether it involved the commissioner or any other officer. 

Jason Azzopardi stands by his claims

Jason Azzopardi in a Facebook post shortly after Cutajar's statement repeated his claims on Facebook and said he was challenging Cutajar to sue him.