Minister for Home Affairs Carmelo Abela yesterday accused Opposition deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami of unjustly attacking two public institutions, the Public Service Commission (PSC) and the Civil Protection Department (CPD).

Winding up the debate in second reading of the Civil Protection (Amendment Bill), Mr Abela referred to Dr Fenech Adami’s charge that the department had recruited two persons who had been found guilty of a criminal offence.

A court judgment on CPD volunteer Natalino Spiteri in 2006 had run its course and he had presented a clean conduct certificate to the selection board, although he had then chosen not to join the department.

As for the other person, Jonathan Callus, he had been a volunteer in the department since 2004 and everyone acknowledged his capabilities.

The board made him ineligible because of a court sentence but he had petitioned it and the Public Service Commission then ordered it not to omit him from the selection process.

In two years, the government has invested more in the CPD than under the Nationalists

“There was no monkey business: Dr Fenech Adami and the PN Opposition discovered nothing. It was the previous PN administration that had monkey business in the purchasing of oil and Mater Dei Hospital,” said Dr Abela. He went on to say that in two years the government had invested more in the CPD than under the Nationalist government.

He accused Dr Fenech Adami of resorting to “the politics of faces”. He had displayed photographs of four people. Yet, the only flaw that he could find with regard to such persons was that they were Labourites.

This was ironic, since Dr Fenech Adami’s government had filled PBS with persons who were previously employed by Net TV, among them Mario Xuereb, Keith Demicoli and David Bonello, while Sergio Mallia had served as George Pullicino’s PRO. A Nationalist MP’s sister managed TVM 2.

He said the government would ensure more investment in civil protection.