The former mayor of Mosta filed a judicial letter on Thursday, claiming that at least two members of a board set up to investigate contracts awarded during his tenure had a conflict of interest.

Paul Chetcuti Caruana said he was also discriminated against because witnesses summoned by the board were told what the inquiry was about while he had to find out via the media.

He said he had received a phone call from a certain Chris Galea giving him a day’s notice to testify before the inquiry, which had been set up by the Mosta local council. The inquiry board is headed by Louis Cilia and includes Martin Scicluna and Natalino Attard as its members.

Dr Chetcuti Caruana said that when he asked why he was being summoned, Mr Galea told him that the issue had been reported by the media and so he could follow it.

He said he wrote a legal letter to the council, requesting basic information, such as what the inquiry was about and so on, but his letter was ignored.

He said he learnt about the board and what it was investigating from an article in The Times.

Through the article, he also learnt about the composition of the board and he could say that, at least two of the members had a personal conflict of interest. He did not mention them by name.

He insisted that he had always acted correctly in his duties as mayor and had documents to confirm this.

On the other hand, Dr Chetcuti Caruana said, the board of inquiry had acted incorrectly and was not impartial. He requested an immediate investigation of the situation and reserved the right to institute criminal proceedings.

Lawyer Stefano Filletti signed the letter.