Parliamentary Secretary Michael Falzon this afternoon declined to state whether he met members of the Gaffarena family together with the Prime Minister prior to the 2013 elections but said that he would respect whatever the Prime Minister decides about is political future.

Asked by Times of Malta to state whether he had met Joe Gaffarena and other members of his family during a lunch-meeting in Zebbug in April 2012, Dr Falzon avoided a reply.

This newspaper asked whether during the meeting, Dr Muscat was also present together with other Labour MPs from the Qormi district.

Dr Falzon said that he did not wish to take any further questions on the issue, but made it clear that he did not promise anything to Gaffarena before the election.

“I did not promise anything to anyone, not even to Gaffarena, before the election. Maybe, that is why I was only elected through a casual election”, he said sarcastically. 

“I have no responsibility to carry as I did nothing wrong,” Dr Falzon reiterated.

In a direct snipe at former PN Health Minister Joe Cassar, who has resigned last week from Parliament, Dr Falzon said:

“What I can tell you is that whenever I bought a car I paid for it; I have no CCTV system at my house; I have always declared my income as I was always an employee and I was never given millions in consultancies.”

When Times of Malta asked him whether he was given a unique golden handshake from BOV as soon as he became parliamentary secretary, Dr Falzon said that “that was the Bank’s decision”.

Dr Falzon was given a €260,000 pay-out for early retirement with the proviso of returning back to his job after five years. The latter proviso was only given to Dr Falzon.

Asked whether the Prime Minister has spoken to him following the conclusions of the Internal Audit and Investigations Department (IAID) on the Gafferna deal with the government property division, the Parliamentary Secretary said that Dr Muscat has not told him anything.

“I will respect the PM’s discretion,” he said, with reference to the Prime Minister’s remit to appoint and dismiss Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries.

Although Dr Muscat had said that he would publish the IAID report, he said that he will refrain from doing this until a separate investigation by the National Audit Office is completed.

Dr Muscat said that the government sent the IAID report to the National Audit Office.