Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this afternoon defended the government's decision to ask its Internal Audit and Investigations Department (IAID) to investigate the controversial expropriation of a property in Old Mint Street, Valletta, despite another investigation being held by the Auditor-General.
Replying to questions by Opposition MPs in parliament, Dr Muscat said he could not understand how the Opposition appeared to be objecting to further investigation.
The IAID, he said, was governed by an ad hoc law which gave it particular powers that enabled broad investigations, he said. Its officials were governed over the way how they went about their investigations.
Dr Muscat was replying to questions by MPs Mario de Marco, Jason Azzopardi, George Pullicino, Francis Zammit Dimech and Ryan Callus. The expropriation deal was first revealed by Times of Malta.
Dr Azzopardi and Mr Pullicino observed that up to Friday, Parliamentary Secretary Michael Falzon had said no further investigations were needed. Now, apart from the Auditor-General's inquiry, the government had decided to hold an investigation by the IAID, which answered to the government and not to parliament.
Dr Muscat said he hoped that the opposition was not implying that investigations by the IAID were vitiated, because if that was the case, it also applied for past cases.
He said he had not yet seen the terms of reference for the investigation by the Auditor-General but the remit was not necessarily the same as that given to the IAID. He did not see a conflict between the two, but a way for greater transparency.
Asked whether a staff member of the Office of the Prime Minister was involved, Dr Muscat said no one from his office appeared to be involved in the case.
On why the government had opted to expropriate only part-ownership of the property, he said that was one of the questions he wanted to see answered, as well as other questions such as the way the property was designated and valued.