Updated | PN wants Speaker to investigate Education Minister’s non-answer to parliamentary question

Updated at 5pm with Education Ministry statement

Nationalist Party wants the Speaker to investigate the Education Minister after the Standards Commissioner refused to do so, it said in a statement on Thursday.

The PN wants an investigation into parliamentary question replies by Minister Clifton Grima on the publication of an auditing report.

It said the report should have been carried out, and had to investigate the decision on a five-year extension of the American University of Malta’s (AUM) which was handed down in August 2022.

The PN has alleged the minister misguided the House by making reference to an ‘institutional audit’ carried out in October 2020.

“This report was already the basis on which a decision had been taken, in 2021, that the licence is extended by just one year because, according to this audit, the AUM had failed,” the PN said.

It said it expects the Speaker to carry out his duties, and defend the truth, stating MPs have the right to receive truthful information when receiving replies to their parliamentary questions.

In a statement later on Thursday, the Education Ministry denied the PN's allegations and called them defamatory. "Minister Clifton Grima was correct and clear in his answers to the parliamentary questions and provided the information requested."