PM rejects Mugliett's offer to resign

The Prime Minister has turned down an offer to resign from Transport Minister Jesmond Mugliett over a decision to suspend the sacking of two Malta Transport Authority (ADT) officials convicted of bribery.

"It's a debatable decision," Lawrence Gonzi told The Sunday Times when speaking about Mr Mugliett's involvement in the case yesterday.

However, Dr Gonzi insisted that the minister had not given instructions to retain the officials; merely to suspend the decision pending their request for a Presidential pardon. As such, therefore, he did not believe there were sufficient grounds to accept his resignation.

Two weeks ago, outgoing ADT CEO Gianfranco Selvaggi revealed he had been "told" by the ministry to reverse a decision to sack the two officials, Jason Buttigieg and Roderick Galea - the latter a former canvasser of the minister - pending the pardon request.

They had been conditionally discharged for three years and banned for life from holding public office. However, just weeks after being sacked, the decision was reversed and they were instead suspended on half pay.

The matter then emerged in the press and the officers were eventually sacked.

The minister defended his involvement in the matter, saying the decision had followed "collective discussions", stressing in Parliament last Tuesday that the ADT chairman was involved in the process.

However, the chairman distanced himself from the issue last Friday, pointing out in a letter he sent to The Times that neither he nor the ADT board were involved in the decision to switch the sacking of these officials, even temporarily, to a suspension.

"I was of the opinion that the Presidential pardon had no bearing on whether these people should be sacked," Mr Gerada said when contacted.

Dr Gonzi, however, said that Mr Mugliett's intervention did not actually "reverse" the previous decision to sack the officials.

He said: "In view of a letter by the officials' legal representative and the fact that there was a precedent - a man had been granted a Presidential pardon and reinstated in similar circumstances - the minister asked that the execution of that decision be left until the outcome of the Presidential pardon."

When asked whether he considered it was appropriate that the minister personally intervened in this case, against the expressed opinion of both the chairman and the CEO, despite knowing that it involved one of his former canvassers, Dr Gonzi stressed that the decision over the Presidential pardon was independent of the minister's actions.

The minister himself has avoided answering any questions in connection with the chairman's denial of his statement made in Parliament.

"Just as you and others have the right to follow a story the way you want to, I think I have the right to issue a statement when I want to and how I want to," the minister said.

Sources told The Times that the statement referred to by Mr Mugliett is likely to be issued tomorrow, after the matter is discussed with the Office of the Prime Minister.