Finance Minister Tonio Fenech yesterday asked Mr Speaker Michael Frendo to send a transcript of what had just been said during question time to the Commissioner of Police.

This followed an argument between the minister and Opposition Whip Joe Mizzi on whether the necessary checks had been made to ascertain that no consultants had ever been charged with corruption.

When Mr Mizzi asked his first supplementary question in this sense, Mr Fenech said he had no information in this regard. On additional pressing by Mr Mizzi, the minister said consultancy firms were so well established that in some cases they were actually approached by the government entity itself.

It was not fair for Mr Mizzi to generalise, Mr Fenech added. If the Labour MP had any well-founded suspicions on any specific consultant or firm, he could refer the case to the Commissioner of Police.

Mr Mizzi said what was not fair was that in the past he had been told that the police had no time to listen to him. Now he was being asked to approach the police. If any consultant or firm had escaped the safety net, who would shoulder the political respon-sibility?

Mr Fenech said that if Mr Mizzi gave him any details he himself would pass them on to the Commissioner of Police. So Mr Mizzi could either do it that way or approach the commissioner himself. The list of consultants and firms contained more than 100 names and he could not be expected to check them out himself.

Mr Mizzi said Mr Fenech should see to it that his staff did their job well.

It was here that the minister asked the Speaker to send the transcript of what had been said to the Commissioner of Police.