Nationalist MP Franco Debono wants to know if the Nationalist Party’s executive would be disciplining Health Minister Joseph Cassar if claims over his appointment of a selection board prove to be true.

The selection board in question was found by the Public Service Commission to have approved four candidates to medical consultancy posts even though they were not suitably qualified.

A Health Ministry spokesman had originally said board members’ names could not be disclosed due to data protection issues – a claim data protection commissioner Joseph Ebejer rejected last week.

Writing in his blog today, Dr Debono said the PN executive recently condemned MPs who called on ministers and public officials to be accountable.

But accountability in a democracy was more important than obeying a whip, he said.

Dr Debono said the people had a right to know the details of the minister’s choice and the names of the people on the board.

If Dr Cassar was responsible for this bad choice, would he be disciplined and condemned by the executive as it had condemned others whose actions were much less serious, he asked.

Discipline, he said, should start with the big fish and not the small ones. Had this been done, the government would not have ended in coalition with one of its previous MPs.