PAC is no political football

The chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Labour MP Charles Mangion yesterday accused Investments Minister Austin Gatt of wanting to transform the PAC into a vehicle to serve the partisan interests of the Nationalist Party.

In a statement, he said that as long as he remained chairman of the committee he would not allow anyone to use the committee as a political football.

If the minister or the government did not like the way he administered the PAC, they could proceed by moving a no confidence motion. With the government's majority, this would be easily approved.

Dr Mangion said that in his letter to the Speaker on Tuesday he had asked how to proceed regarding Dr Gatt's motion calling for an investigation into the Auditor General's work regarding the Voice of the Mediterranean.

The other problem was regarding a conflict of interest as chairman of the committee because a motion proposed by Dr Gatt for the committee to investigate allegations by the Labour leader and approved by the government's majority was of a partisan nature.