Whip unable to muster reason for Cabinet failure to submit asset declarations

Government Whip Andy Ellul opted for partisan arguments instead of saying why ministers have not yet submitted their asset declarations for 2021 when asked in parliament about the matter.

No less than three Opposition MPs - Ivan castillo, Beppe Fenech Adami and Mark Anthony Sammut - asked Ellul why the Prime Minister and his ministers had not yet submitted their asset declarations and when they will be doing so.

However, each time, Ellul simply said ministers had no problem to submit their declarations without saying when they will be doing so.

“This side of the House has no problem with submitting their asset declarations,” Ellul said when asked by Castillo, who was the first to put the question during parliamentary question time. Ellul proceeded to tell the MP to submit his parliamentary question in writing.

Fenech Adami then asked: “Why did your Prime Minister, who you work with in the same office, and ministers not present their asset declaration for 2021?”

Ellul did not take kindly to the question. “How can you [Beppe Fenech Adami] come here asking about asset declarations? The Prime Minister is not mine, but the country’s prime minister with the biggest majority in history,” Ellul replied cheekily, reiterating that ministers had no problem to submit asset declarations.

A similar question by Mark Anthony Sammut was met with more cynism and partisan digs at Fenech Adami.

Earlier on Wednesday, the PN’s spokesperson for justice, Karol Aquilina, called out the Labour administration over the unacceptable delay in tabling ministers’ declaration of assets and interests in the House.

There is no set date for these asset declarations to be tabled in parliament but the current delay is one of the longest in years.

Apart from being the government's parliamentary Whip, Ellul is also parliamentary secretary for social dialogue within the Office of the Prime Minister.