A number of diplomats from Commonwealth countries have complained they have been kept in the dark by the government over next year’s Commonwealth leaders meeting in Malta.

“We cannot understand why the government is not informing us about the preparations being made, even though we are just 12 months away from the event,” a senior diplomat from a large Commonwealth country told The Sunday Times of Malta.

Another diplomat said there seemed to be lack of communication even with the Commonwealth secretariat in London because officials there have not been able to provide many details so far.

We cannot understand why the government is not informing us about the preparations being made

A series of questions sent over the last four months by The Sunday Times of Malta to the Office of the Prime Minister and the task force appointed to oversee the CHOGM meeting were never answered.

While the Prime Minister’s spokesman first asked this newspaper to ask the Foreign Affairs Ministry for information, a spokesman for the Foreign Office referred the newspaper back to the Prime Minister’s spokesman.

Still, no replies were given.

Phyllis Muscat, personally entrusted by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to head the task force has refused to be interviewed by this newspaper. Asked to provide the dates of the meeting and the location where it is going to be hosted, a spokesman for the task force would only say that discussions are still ongoing and official announcements will be made next month when the official launch is expected.

Sources said that the meeting, for 53 heads of government, will take place during the second week of November and will once again be held at the Golden Sands Hotel in Għajn Tuffieħa.

The hotel had already hosted CHOGM in 2005.