The Opposition has called on the government to come clean on the resignation of the director  of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, Manfred Galdes, and to say if his exit was linked to an investigation into the setting up of secret companies in Panama by Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri.

Addressing a news conference at Parliament, PN deputy leader Mario de Marco noted the news of Dr Galdes' departure was only broken in the independent media.

While stressing that he was not trying to speculate about this resignation, he questioned if his departure was due to an internal clash on the Panama scandal investigation. He asked if the investigation had been concluded.

If in the affirmative he questioned whether its findings were passed to the commissioner of police or any other entity.

The news conference was also addressed by PN MP Kristy Debono who said that this resignation dealt another blow to the financial services sector. She noted that this was not an isolated departure as it followed several other heads of government entities, such as the police commissioner. 

When it was pointed to him that by law the findings of the probe could not be published, Dr Marco said that the least thing the government could do was to explain the circumstances which led to Dr Galdes' resignation.