Economic Affairs Minister Chris Cardona this evening denied that the government had requested the resignation of Antonio Ghigo, chairman of the Malta Communications Authority, although it eventually accepted the resignation.

Replying to questions by a number of Nationalist MPs including the Leader of the Opposition, Dr Cardona said the resignation was requested by the former permanent secretary in a letter dated March 12.

“I did not know of the letter, I could not have known of this letter since the Cabinet had not been appointed by that date, and we were not yet ministers,” Dr Cardona said.

The resignation, he added, was voluntary and was accepted.

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil asked the minister not to mislead the House, insisting that the Labour government was responsible on March 12.

When Dr Busuttil read the letter asking Dr Ghigo to resign, Dr Cardona requested a copy and insisted again that the permanent secretary had issued it “behind our backs”.

In the letter, he observed, the permanent secretary had told all chairmen within the ministry to resign ‘as is customary’ with a change of government. He had also referred to a circular by the former principal permanent secretary who had said that when there was doubt over whether a resignation should be submitted, such a resignation should be offered.

However, when asked by Dr Busuttil, whether the government would consider reinstating Dr Ghigo since he had been chairing a regulatory authority, Dr Cardona said the government would not. Furthermore, he said, the government did not see any violation of EU law through this resignation.

In his resignation on March 14, Dr Ghigo said the request for him to do so breached local law and EU directives establishing the authority’s “complete independence”.

He said these regulations stipulated the situations where the head of the regulatory authority on communications networks can be removed.