Marlene Farrugia wants MPs to have the opportunity to query Education Minister Evarist Bartolo’s repeated calls for the resignation of the financial services regulator.
The independent MP reiterated her call yesterday after Mr Bartolo on Saturday again called for the resignation of Joe Bannister, chairman of the Malta Financial Services Authority.
She told the Times of Malta MPs should be able to seek clarifications from Mr Bartolo and Prof. Bannister.
“Having been at the forefront of building Malta’s financial services sector, Joe Bannister is not one who is easily removed but evidently there is something worrying Evarist Bartolo. I would like to know what it is and to hear Prof. Bannister’s defence,” she said.
Dr Farrugia insisted she was not seeking Prof. Bannister’s resignation but the calls for his removal by none other than a government minister could not be swept aside “as if nothing is happening”.
On Saturday afternoon Dr Farrugia said the economic and financial affairs parliamentary committee should be summoned by its chairman, Labour MP Silvio Schembri, to probe the matter.
She gave Mr Schembri two weeks to convene the committee, failing which she would present a motion to have the matter debated in the plenary.
She reiterated the call yesterday, insisting people’s minds should be put at rest and that MPs should be able to seek clarifications from the two protagonists.
“The question is whether Silvio Schembri is independent and autonomous enough to call the meeting and summon the two men,” she said.
She confirmed that there had been no communication between her and Mr Schembri as of yesterday. Attempts to contact the Labour MP proved futile.
Mr Bartolo’s repeated calls for Prof. Bannister’s removal have created an embarrassing situation for Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. In 2014, Prof. Bannister was re-appointed chairman of the MFSA for another five years.
It is evident the MFSA chief enjoys the Prime Minister’s trust but this has not stopped Mr Bartolo, a senior minister, from defying his political boss.
The education minister has insisted that Prof. Bannister’s directorships of funds in the Cayman Islands had a direct conflict with his regulatory role. Furthermore, Mr Bartolo insisted the chairman’s 20-year tenure at the helm of the MFSA was not salutary and enforcement had become lax.
Mr Bartolo had first made his claims of conflict of interest in 2012 but, in his only public comments to date, Prof. Bannister insisted the directorships he held were not connected to Malta, were well-known and public.