Economy Minister Chris Cardona yesterday denied that the government had taken €50,000 from the Malta Communications Authority to use for other projects it considered to have greater priority.

He said the practice of the government distancing itself from authorities’ revenues still existed, as in the past.

Answering a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Kristy Debono, Dr Cardona explained that the Ministry of Finance, after discussion with the MCA itself, had concluded that €50,000 of the regulator’s 2013 budget of €550,000 would not have been profitably utilised and, therefore, the budget was cut to €500,000 in July.

He repeatedly told Opposition MPs Ċensu Galea and Marthese Portelli that the €50,000 had come out of the government Budget for the MCA and not from the regulator’s revenues. There was no change in the MCA’s operations.

Dr Cardona did not reply to Dr Portelli’s questions on what the funds had been used for. He said the priority he had mentioned had not been the MCA’s but the government’s.