An emergency meeting of the committee that oversees the Security Service will be held today after a call by Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil.

The security committee is expected to discuss the recent admission by Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia that he stood in for job interviews with officers who were transferred to the secret service. The Opposition leader wrote to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday asking him to convene a meeting of the security committee to “examine the service’s administration and policies” in view of recent developments.

Dr Busuttil, who released the letter to the media, asked for Security Services head Michael Cassar to be present for the meeting and give committee members the necessary information.

Dr Muscat accepted the request and agreed to call an emergency meeting for today.

The Prime Minister’s immediate reaction was welcomed by Dr Busuttil, who insisted any such scrutiny on the Security Service should ideally be happening at the behest of the Government and not on the Opposition’s initiative.

Dr Busuttil said the minister’s behaviour was “unacceptable, dangerous and undermined the rule of law and the confidence which the people should have in the service”.

In Parliament, Dr Mallia had defended his decision, saying it was “a new way of doing things” but denied being involved in the choice of people. His chief of staff Silvio Scerri had also been present for the interviews.

The Security Service was set up in 1996 and the security committee is supposed to act as a watchdog. The committee is made up of the Prime Minister, the Home Affairs Minister, the Foreign Minister and the Leader of Opposition.

On a yearly basis the committee tables an annual report in Parliament on the Security Service’s actions, which however contains very little substantive information given the secrecy that surrounds its work.