Two ambassadors summoned

The Foreign Ministry has summoned Richard Muscat, Ambassador to Ireland, and Gaetan Naudi, Ambassador to Spain "for further clarifications" over the auditor general's report on the operations of the Voice of the Mediterranean radio station and statements made by the two diplomats in reaction to the findings.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Mr Muscat and Mr Naudi will be in Malta next week.

The Labour Party on Monday called for the resignation of the two Maltese ambassadors in the light of the report. Mr Muscat is a former VoM managing director and Mr Naudi held the post of permanent secretary within the Foreign Affairs Ministry. The auditor's report found a number of shortcomings in the way the radio station was run, ranging from the way management awarded major contracts related to the station's expansion and refurbishment by direct order, to hospitality expenses claimed by the managing director in excess of his employment entitlement contract.

The shortwave radio station ceased to broadcast on December 31, 2003 after a spell of 20 years when the Libyan government - which was a shareholder in the company - informed its Maltese counterpart it no longer saw a function for the station.