Last week the government said Cabinet documents of the two Labour administrations led by Dom Mintoff in the 1970s were “not found”.

Documents due to be released next month by the National Archives confirm that Cabinet minutes of the two Labour administrations headed by the late Dom Mintoff in the 1970s did exist but only a handful “have survived”, this newspaper has learnt.

Last Thursday, the government said it was acquiescing to numerous requests from historians for the release of the Cabinet papers between 1962 and 1981.

However, it was pointed out that documents of the two Labour administrations led by Mr Mintoff were “not found”.

As a result, only Cabinet minutes of the two PN administrations led by George Borg Olivier and some ‘notes’ that related to Mr Mintoff’s Cabinets would be made public.

While this fuelled suspicions among Mr Mintoff’s critics that these might have been intentionally misplaced to remove any trace of “potentially incriminating evidence” such as the National Bank saga, others questioned the very existence of such documents, saying that in those days Cabinet did not meet regularly.

However, the latter possibility was ruled out by a government spokesman, as well by a source who spoke to this newspaper.

“I can confirm that a handful of Cabinet minutes dating back to the 1970s are still in existence, but it seems that nobody ever took care to store these documents in a safe place for future reference,” sources said.

It seems that nobody ever took care to store these documents in a safe place

The government spokesman said the existence of these ‘notes’ presupposed the writing of Cabinet minutes.

“Drafts were also unearthed, which clearly indicate that Cabinet minutes were written and kept,” he said.

The drafts have been passed on to the National Archives with the rest of the Cabinet minutes, the spokesman said.

Vincent Moran, who was health minister between 1976 and 1981, recollected that the Cabinet secretary always used to take minutes, but on second thoughts said he was not sure whether they were just notes.

Former minister Joe Micallef Stafrace immediately pointed out that his spell in Cabinet lasted barely four months as he had resigned in September 1971, and so was not in a position to speak on the matter.

However, he remarked that in those days Mr Mintoff used to prefer holding one-to-one meetings with those directly involved rather than spring up surprises during Cabinet meetings.

As a result, the Cabinet was not summoned as regularly as it is these days.