Sant claims Tony Abela used OPM for private work
Parliamentary Secretary issues denial
Labour leader Alfred Sant yesterday called on Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to remove Parliamentary Secretary Tony Abela from his position, after accusing him of using the Prime Minister's Office for his private work as notary.
This was denied by Dr Abela who, when contacted, said he had been carrying out his political work.
In a press conference outside Castille yesterday morning, Dr Sant said Dr Abela was in breach of the code of ethics for ministers and parliamentary secretaries, which among other things stated that they were expected to stop their private work, including consultancies, even if this was not done against payment.
He accused Dr Abela of abuse of power for using the OPM for his private work, adding that unless Dr Gonzi took steps to remove Dr Abela, he would be approving this "abuse".
Dr Sant claimed that Dr Abela had sent a letter to Joint Office director Carmel Camilleri, using a letterhead of the OPM's parliamentary secretariat, which said that "this office" was instructing the Joint Office to process what Dr Sant described as "a purely professional issue". He said the letter was sent on behalf of a private client.
Dr Sant said this was an unacceptable and scandalous procedure, and there were other similar cases.
"The Prime Minister's Office is being used to give instructions to other government entities to process a private transaction Dr Abela is involved in as a notary," he claimed.
He also accused Dr Abela of breaching all transparency procedures with which the civil service is managed.
In a reply issued through the Department of Information, Dr Abela said Dr Sant was wrong and explained that the letter in question referred to an application by a Rabat resident to pay off the ground rent of his residence.
Dr Abela said the letter had been sent by him on behalf of the resident to confirm that the resident had accepted the price quoted by the Joint Office.
Contacted by The Times, Dr Abela explained that he had been carrying out his political work in this instance, adding that this was the reason he used the secretariat's letterhead. He said the OPM handled government schemes, of which this was one.
Dr Abela said the government had launched a scheme enabling people residing in properties subject to temporary ground rent originating before 1979 and payable to the Joint Office, to pay it off.
He added that more than 2,000 applications of this nature were received and were processed by the government notary.