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Karl Schembri
Investments Minister Austin Gatt has pitted the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in a serious dilemma after he turned the guns on the National Audit Office and forced a motion to investigate the constitutionally set up office in the wake of its inquiry into the Voice of the Mediterranean fiasco.
PAC chairman and Opposition MP Charles Mangion has yet to get the Attorney General’s opinion on whether the investigation into the audit office’s work would be constitutional, given that the Auditor General is an officer of the House appointed with the approval of at least two-thirds of parliamentary vote.
The dilemma is further complicated by PAC’s standing orders, which set the committee’s terms of reference as a board of scrutiny of the auditor’s reports but not to scrutinise the auditor’s office, with legal sources saying the only avenue to investigate the auditor would be through a motion of no confidence that needs the vote of two-thirds of MPs.
Last Wednesday, Gatt said the auditor’s report on the publicly funded radio station included major inconsistencies that could lead one to conclude that the report was “manoeuvred and pre-determined”.
The main bone of contention surrounds the audit office’s appointment of Louis Borg as IT consultant to evaluate an internet radio contract given to Cyberspace Solutions. Under questioning, audit officer John Burlò failed to give a list of consultants approached for their service as it transpired that Borg, who was Alternattiva Demokratika candidate on the fourth district in 1998, was not even an IT expert.
Gatt’s motion calls on the PAC to appoint persons to investigate the audit office’s behaviour in drawing up the report, which he said was intended to reach its conclusions in advance.
Asked who could be appointed to investigate the auditor, Gatt threw the question back to the committee.
“I would prefer to leave it to the committee itself to discuss the choice of person/persons to conduct the investigation since my only priority is to ensure that whoever is selected is professionally capable of conducting such an investigation,” Gatt told MaltaToday.
Labour MP Leo Brincat, who insists with his call for Richard Muscat’s and Gaetan Naudi’s resignations from ambassadors, was also critical of parts of the audit office’s investigation but said Gatt’s motion was aimed at discrediting the institution and at conditioning future investigations.
“I can’t say I was 100 per cent satisfied with the report, there were some parts in which they slipped up a bit and were unprofessional, but the message government is giving is that whoever investigates something will be investigated, that whoever points out irregularities will end in the line of fire,” he said. “It is clear Naudi did not shoulder responsibility as then Permanent Secretary. He said he delegated authority, but that doesn’t mean he can abdicate responsibility.”
PAC chairman Mangion does not believe the committee has the authority to carry out Gatt’s request.
“I need to seek the Attorney General’s advice to see if this motion is ultra vires,” he said. “I don’t think PAC has the authority to investigate the auditor’s office. As chair of the committee I disagree completely with this motion without precedents. The implications are enormous. You can’t shake an institution in this way. Politically, government is condoning lack of accountability, no value for money in the expenditure of public funds. It’s giving a totally wrong message.”
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
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