House committee sitting derailed as government side walks out

A sitting of the House Public Accounts Committee was derailed yesterday soon after starting when government members walked out, leaving committee chairman Charles Mangion (PL) without a working quorum.

The walk-out came after Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt objected to the fact that One Radio’s noon news bulletin had pre-empted Dr Mangion in the plans he was laying out for future sittings of the PAC.

At the very start of the sitting, Dr Gatt objected to One TV filming the meeting, pointing out he would have opposed any station doing so.

Dr Mangion said this first meeting of the PAC would be discussing three out of six outstanding items mentioned in the Audit Report for 2008. He was expecting the six items to be fully covered in four sittings before the committee would start discussing the Audit Report for 2009. The programme could be interrupted by the presentation of the Budget 2011 and the subsequent debates thereon.

He also said he would be dedicating three sittings to the Auditor General’s report on the power station extension contract awarded to Danish company BWSC. In view of the great amount of work before the committee, he intended to call meetings on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week to discuss BWSC, after which the committee’s programme would be reviewed.

Dr Gatt objected strongly to the fact the noon news bulletin on One Radio yesterday had said government MP Charlò Bonnici would be present on the committee during the BWSC meetings despite the fact that he was an employee of the Vassallo group of companies, one of which was carrying out the construction works in the extension of the power station. One Radio had also published information on next week’s meetings when the government side did not yet know about them.

Dr Gatt said this state of affairs was “highly objectionable” and objected to BWSC being discussed.

Dr Mangion said he had informed Finance Minister Tonio Fenech on Tuesday. He recalled that weeks ago he had been challenged to raise the BWSC report before the committee. He denied that what had happened was “bouncing the government side about and rendering it superfluous”, as Dr Gatt had said. The Standing Orders held that the committee chairman could call meetings and set the agenda.

Dr Gatt said it was shameful that One Radio had already known what would be said at the PAC meeting. Mr Fenech, who was overseas, had not known that BWSC would be on the agenda.

Dr Mangion said he was only fixing a timetable, something he could have done alone. Nonetheless, he was noting Dr Gatt’s objections.

Dr Gatt said he was complaining not just about One Radio but about a flagrant political strategy. Mr Bonnici was present on the PAC not because he was a Vassallo employee but as Dr Gatt’s parliamentary assistant. Dr Gatt insisted on a vote.

When Dr Mangion refused a vote, Dr Gatt stood up and said Dr Mangion did not have a quorum to work with. He walked out of the meeting followed by government MPs Chris Said, Robert Arrigo and Mr Bonnici.

Dr Mangion said the meeting could not go on because of lack of quorum but read out a list of people who would be called to testify before the committee’s meetings discussing the BWSC.

As he was doing so, government whip David Agius stood up and said very loudly that Dr Mangion was in breach of Standing Orders because the meeting could not continue. Dr Mangion told him, just as loudly, he could not interrupt because he was not a member of the PAC and that he was free to present a motion in the House.

Having read the list of witnesses, Dr Mangion declared the meeting closed.

The issue later continued in the House where Dr Gatt called on the Speaker to give a ruling after the government MPs’ call for a vote in the PAC was turned down.

He said government MPs had learned of what would be discussed in the committee through One News. He also complained the PAC meeting had continued after the government MPs walked out, even though there was no quorum. He called on the Chair to give a ruling on this too.

Opposition deputy whip Noel Farrugia said the debate on BWSC had to be held now because the Finance Minister was responsible for Enemalta and, in the coming weeks, he would otherwise be occupied with the Budget. The government side, he said, had been told this before the meeting.

After Mr Speaker, Michael Frendo, said the Chair would give a ruling at a later stage, Dr Gatt augured that the agenda for any PAC meeting called for next Monday would not include the item to which the government objected to.

Both parties later issued statements, accusing each other of arrogance. The Nationalist Party parliamentary group said that Dr Mangion was arrogant when he refused to allow the vote requested by the government MPs, declaring that he was the one who set the agenda.

The group said the PN MPs had walked out of the committee meeting in order to report the incident to the Speaker immediately.

It insisted that Standing Orders were violated when the meeting was allowed to continue with the reading of a list of people to be called for the BWSC discussion next week.

Such an attitude, the PN said, showed disrespect to parliamentary procedures.

The opposition, it said, expected that it could sideline parliamentary rules and practices and create rules to accommodate itself.

On the other hand, the Labour Party said the behaviour of the Nationalist MPs was arrogant and showed how the government wanted, at all costs, to defend what had taken place in the power station extension contract.

While the Prime Minister had challenged the opposition to take to the PAC the debate on the Auditor General’s report on the BWSC contract, the Nationalist MPs were showing that they did not feel comfortable discussing a report which found many irregularities.

The Prime Minister had said the government wanted transparency and accountability, but this was only lip service, the PL said.