Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this morning refused to pass judgement on Economy Minister Chris Cardona’s decision to change recommendations by the Privatisation Unit after a government call for legal services. Instead, he stuck to the position that the case did not involve a tender but a call for expressions of interest.

"This was a half way house instead of a direct order, he said, and the Privatisation Unit should not really have been involved in the first place," he said.

In any case, the privatisation unit's advice was non-binding.

He said that unlike what used to happen in the past, where certain legal firms used to be given direct orders by the government, Dr Cardona wanted to give the opportunity to more firms through a competitive bid.

Asked whether he approved that Dr Cardona’s effectively changed the results of the classification made by the Privatisation unit, the Prime Minister avoided to reply directly and insisted that there was no tender involved.

“I don’t know why the Privitisation Unit was involved in this issue, but the minister  could have given a direct order,” he said.

Asked whether he approved of comments made by Dr Cardona that he would now check who passed the information to The Sunday Times, Dr Muscat said that he didn’t hear the comments. He said that the government, through the whistle-blower act wants to make sure that informers are protected.

In a press conference to mark the approval of the Whistleblower Act by Parliament, Dr Muscat said that the government would now proceed to enact a party financing act by the end of this year.