FIAU chairperson’s appointment has to be ‘regularised’, Speaker rules

Anġlu Farrugia has ruled that the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit’s board chief has to undergo parliamentary scrutiny before his appointment is officialised.

The Speaker said that Jesmond Gatt’s appointment as chairperson of the FIAU board back in April had to be “regularised”.

The appointment is one of those listed at law as requiring a parliamentary grilling at the hands of the Public Appointments Committee.

Gatt’s name was never put forward for scrutiny when his appointment was announced in the Government Gazette back in April.

Nationalist Party MPs Karol Aquilina, Carm Mifsud Bonnici and Clyde Puli asked the parliamentary committee’s chair, Anthony Agius Decelis and the Speaker, for a ruling on the matter. Subsequently, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna put forward Gatt’s name for scrutiny.

In his ruling delivered this evening, Farrugia said the FIAU chairperson’s appointment could only be officialised after a parliamentary grilling takes place.

However, the Speaker dismissed the Opposition MPs' claim that it had to be the Prime Minister and not the Finance Minister to put forward the nomination.