After haggling for two hours MPs fail to agree on PAC procedure and Electrogas witness list

Members of parliament sitting on the Public Accounts Committee spent over two hours discussing procedural details before eventually passing the buck onto the Speaker.

The committee held its second sitting on Thursday, supposedly to confirm the list of witnesses requested by the Opposition that will testify in relation to the Auditor General’s report into the contract awarded to Electrogas.

But the meeting was largely dominated by arguments on procedure and the committee’s way forward. MPs spent over an hour on just one trivial detail as to whether the Opposition should identify the scope for each witness before they are summoned.

The first issue brought up was a matter of timelines. Government MPs insisted that some form of timeframe or blueprint on the way forward should be given to ensure efficiency.

Opposition MPs rebutted, saying that too strict a timeframe or deadline would hinder the work of the committee in investigating the report.

The discussion then turned to whether the committee should focus solely on the Electrogas report, or whether other reports should be brought to the agenda.

Labour MP Andy Ellul insisted that the government side has no problem working on the Electrogas report, but would also like to discuss a report of their choosing.

Nationalist MP Graham Bencini mentioned that the Opposition would be happy to meet more than once a week to speed up any processes or get more work done in the committee. However, their offer was eventually dismissed in favour of meeting once a week.

The committee then agreed to discussing the Electrogas audit report and a government-chosen report in parallel to each other. One week would be dedicated to Electrogas, and another week on the government’s report.

After this, the committee went on to spend over an hour discussing the list of witnesses presented by the Opposition MPs.

The list includes 84 witnesses, some of which already testified before the committee in the previous legislature.

Government MPs insisted that they have no problem with the witnesses listed by the Opposition, but were adamant on forcing the committee to determine “the scope” for which each witness will be brought to testify.

Nationalist MP David Agius argued that the list already makes clear that the witnesses will be brought to testify over the Auditor General’s report on the Electrogas contract.

Darren Carabott, the Nationalist MP who chairs the committee, questioned why government MPs suddenly want to adopt this new procedure in the committee.

“We’re not in court here. This is a parliamentary committee. It was never practice to determine the scope of each witness,” he said.

Government MPs kept insisting on determining a scope, arguing that in the previous legislature there were instances when witnesses were grilled on different reports. Opposition MPs argued that it’s self-evident that witnesses would be testifying on the Electrogas contract, dismissing the past experience.

Agius then formally requested a ruling from Speaker Anġlu Farrugia on the matter, asking whether the reason given on the list of witnesses by the Opposition is enough of a “scope” as is being requested by the government.

The MPs will now wait for the Speaker's ruling before charting a course forward.