Momentum requests Standards Commissioner probe into PAC members over Film Commission vote

The political party Momentum has called for an investigation by the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life into four government MPs who, it says, “covered up” for Malta Film Commissioner Johann Grech during this week’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) session.

In a statement on Thursday, Momentum said MPs Glenn Bedingfield, Alex Muscat, Amanda Spiteri Grech, and Ramona Attard had “ensured that the Maltese people are kept in the dark” about how €7.2 million in public funds were spent by the Malta Film Commission between 2019 and 2022.

The expenditure, Momentum said, remains unaccounted for as “neither receipts nor any form of documentation” have been presented to Parliament.

The party’s leader, Arnold Cassola, sent a formal request for an investigation to Standards Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi, alleging a “serious and blatant breach of ethics” by the four MPs.

In his letter, Cassola argued that the government MPs used their position and votes in the PAC “to prevent the examination and inquiry” of questionable accounts that the Film Commission had failed to submit. “Instead of fulfilling their parliamentary oath to ensure transparency, they served as a shield for the Film Commissioner, allowing him to keep hidden from the Maltese public how €7 million of their money was spent,” Cassola wrote.

Cassola referred to the PAC’s constitutional and statutory role to examine reports and accounts referred by the Auditor General, stressing that its mandate includes demanding further information where necessary.

The complaint follows a contentious PAC sitting earlier this week, in which government members voted down a motion by Opposition MPs to request additional documentation from the Film Commission.

The motion, tabled by PAC chair Darren Carabott, sought to obtain detailed records of payments, including invoices and proof of transactions. Opposition members argued that without this data, the committee could not properly scrutinise the €7.2 million in expenditure between 2019 and 2022.

Government MPs countered that the information already provided by the Film Commission was sufficient. Labour MP Alex Muscat said at the time that the Commission had already submitted a “detailed breakdown of expenditure,” and that further requests were unnecessary.

The vote effectively halted the PAC’s efforts to pursue additional documentation, despite Speaker Anġlu Farrugia’s ruling that the committee was within its rights to do so.