PAC dissolves into lawyers' spat as MPs argue on procedural issue

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) dissolved into an insufferable spat between lawyers serving as the committee’s members over a disagreement involving a witness.

On Wednesday, the PAC convened for the first time since Parliament reopened after Easter holidays. The committee was meant to hear testimony from Grant Thorton’s head of advisory, George Vella over the controversial Fortina change-of-use concession.

But Vella didn’t even enter the committee room on Wednesday, as the session was over in under one hour after government MPs objected to hearing the testimony on the day. 

Before Vella entered the room, Labour MP Ramona Attard told the PAC’s chairman, Darren Carabott, objected “to the way he was summoned,” as she described the way Vella was summoned as one without respect to the committee’s members. 

The disagreement, which mainly involved Attard, Carabott, and Labour MP Glenn Bedingfield, stemmed from the fact that prior to summoning witnesses, the PAC usually meets informally to approve a list of witnesses for any given session. 

In fact, the government MPs insisted that they had no problem with Vella testifying.

Wednesday’s PAC session mainly consisted of MPs reading out emails they had sent to one another, interrupting, and accusing each other of disrupting the committee’s work. 

The committee then went to vote on whether Vella’s testimony should be heard on Wednesday. Four government MPs voted against this, while the Opposition’s three MPs voted in favour. 

The PAC is set to hear Vella’s testimony on Wednesday, after an informal meeting where the committee’s members approve the list of witnesses.