The nine-seat majority Labour enjoys in Parliament was not enough yesterday to save it the blushes when, within the space of 30 minutes, both the House Public Accounts Committee and the plenary session were adjourned because there were not enough MPs for the debates.

Four out of seven members constitute a quorum for the PAC while the House needed 15 out of 69 MPs.

While the plenary session was due to start debating the Enemalta Transfer of Assets Bill, in line with the investment being made in the company by Shanghai Electric, the PAC was discussing the transfer of Australia Hall to the Labour Party in the 1970s.

Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi proposed the second reading of the Transfer of Assets, Rights, Debts and Obligations of Enemalta Corporation Bill.

Before the debate was due to start, Energy Shadow Minister George Pullicino raised a point of order, arguing that the Bill was a means through which the government would sell the Enemalta plant to a Chinese company and implement the government’s agreement with Electrogas Ltd.

However, the government had still not tabled copies of the Memoranda of Understanding it had signed in September 2013 and March 2014. Neither had it disclosed the information contained in these memoranda.

Noting that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was quoted as saying there was no secrecy and that these memoranda would be published in due course, Mr Pullicino said the government should have tabled the report yesterday, when Parliament was set to discuss this Bill.

He requested a ruling, emphasising that it was premature for Parliament to discuss the Bill in the absence of this information.

“Parliament should have all the possible information to be in an informed position to discuss the Bill,” he said.

Dr Mizzi said that the Bill did not relate to the Delimara Four contracts: it was merely a Bill to modernise Enemalta by converting it from a public corporation to a public limited company (plc). Opposition deputy leader Mario de Marco said that the government should not try to fool people by arguing that the Bill was to be discussed in a vacuum.

Since Enemalta was a corporation, he said, it did not have shares. Therefore, at present, there were no shares that could be sold to Shangai Electric. Consequently, the government had to convert Enemalta into a plc to be able to sell its shares. He appealed to the government to treat the Opposition and people with respect.

Dr Mizzi said the government informed the House whenever an MOU was signed. He noted that the Opposition was spearheaded by Mr Pullicino, who represented the Nationalist Party’s past, and who always sought to put obstacles in the government’s path.

Parliament should have all the possible information to be in an informed position to discuss the Bill

Dr de Marco said that he could not accept such a statement, adding that one had to be prepared to work properly.

Government Whip Carmelo Abela said that the Bill was published a month ago and appealed to both parties to respect each other’s agenda.

Mr Pullicino said he was carrying his obligations with utmost loyalty, not to the government but to the Maltese people. His request for the suspension of the debate followed a decision by the Nationalist parlia-mentary group.

He said while the memoranda were signed months ago, they were still not tabled in the House, adding that the Opposition expected the government to share its information to enable the Opposition to scrutinise the government’s operations. He insisted that Parliament was not in a position to discuss the Bill. Dr Mizzi reiterated that the Bill concerned Enemalta’s modernisation and that the Opposition had all the necessary information in this regard. It was being asked to vote on this Bill and not on the transfer of shares to a Chinese company.

The Opposition asked Mr Speaker Anġlu Farrugia to suspend the sitting and give his ruling.

Dr Farrugia said that he would not suspend the sitting and asked Deputy Speaker Ċensu Galea to preside over the sitting so that Minister Mizzi could start introducing the Bill.

The Opposition objected to this procedure, with Dr de Marco saying that the Opposition had no problem with the session being extended by the amount of time taken for the Speaker to reach a decision.

But Dr Farrugia said that he would stick to his decision and was about to retire to his chambers when Opposition whip David Agius made a quorum call as the Nationalist MPs walked out of the Chamber in protest.

The sitting was suspended.

Mr Abela called in the government MPs who were present in the building and the session resumed after the customary five minutes.

However, the Speaker noted that there was still no quorum and asked Mr Agius whether he was insisting on his quorum call. After Mr Agius replied in the affirmative, the sitting was adjourned to today with the same agenda.

Earlier, the scheduled PAC meeting was adjourned sine die because no government MPs were present.

Committee chairman Tonio Fenech (PN) put the reason on record.

The committee is examining the contracts signed in August 1979 between the Commissioner for Lands and Malta Shipbuilding, and between Malta Shipbuilding and the Malta Labour Party.

Mr Abela later said the reason for the PAC cancellation was not lack of quorum but because two members were busy at another committee discussing a Bill.