[attach id=462466 size="medium"]The PAC is analysing the contract between the government and Henley and Partners on the IIP. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi[/attach]
The permanent secretary at the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry was instructed to publish a call for specialist services on the design of the citizenship by investment programme – but only in the local press.
Kevin Mahoney confirmed this when he was asked the question during a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday, although he did not say by whom.
The committee is analysing the contract between the government and Henley and Partners on the Individual Investor Programme.
Chairing the committee, Tonio Fenech (PN) argued that considering the programme’s international dimension, the promotion of the call in the international press would have reached a much wider audience and could have attracted more bidders.
Asked a question by MP Deborah Schembri (PL), Mr Mahoney could not recall whether the call was published also in the Government Gazette.
Towards the end of the meeting, Minister Owen Bonnici indicated that the call might have been published in the Government Gazette. Research by this paper shows that it was indeed published in the Gazette on June 21, 2013, the same day it appeared in the Times of Malta.
Mr Mahoney, insisting that he was not coerced, explained his role in the process leading to the choice of Henley and Partners.
He described his role as that of an “interface and facilitator”, implementing the directions and recommendations of the then parliamentary secretary Dr Bonnici. This was harshly criticised by Mr Fenech and Jason Azzopardi (PN), who asked whether the role of a permanent secretary was that of a “postman” or a “figurehead”.
Tonio Fenech and Jason Azzopardi asked whether the role of a permanent secretary was that of a postman or a figurehead
The permanent secretary said he did not consider questioning the chosen process since the parliamentary secretary informed him that the procedure had been cleared by the Attorney General.
Mr Mahoney also appointed the persons – who had been indicated by Dr Bonnici – to sit on the evaluation committee and the review board, even though he did not necessarily know them. Mario Vella, Marvin Gaerty and Karl Cini sat on that committee, while the review board was made up of Joshua Zammit, Adrian Said and Reno Borg.
When asked by Mr Fenech, Mr Mahoney said he did not know the evaluation criteria used by the committee to arrive at its decisions.
His role was to email the committee members, informing them of their appointment and to place their report on the ministry’s website after they submitted it.
Asked by Mr Fenech, Mr Ma-honey said that he did not check whether these persons had any conflict of interest, nor did he ask them to declare that this was not the case.