Former police commissioner Ray Zammit, who now heads the Local Enforcement Systems Agency, refused take journalists’ questions this morning.

The visit was boycotted by the Nationalist Party as a sign of disapproval to Mr Zammit appointment as head of the agency.

Ray Zammit

As the media joined Local Government Minister Owen Bonnici to another part of the building to field questions, Mr Zammit went elsewhere.

Journalists repeatedly asked Dr Bonnici to ask Mr Zammit to join him for questions. But although the minister promised journalists that Mr Zammit would reply to their questions, the minister left the building as soon as he finished with his replies.

Journalists again asked agency officials to inform Mr Zammit that journalists were waiting for him to answer their questions. But he failed to appear.

Pressed by journalists to state whether the public should have confidence in Mr Zammit to run the agency, Dr Bonnici repeatedly refused to reply.

In a statement this morning, the Nationalist Party said it was boycotting the visit in disapproval at Mr Zammit's appointment.

Opposition Whip David Agius reiterated that Mr Zammit lacked the necessary credentials to head the agency.

As a former police commissioner, Mr Zammit was involved in the cover-up of the shooting by former minister Manuel Mallia’s driver and an independent inquiry condemned his behaviour in the investigation of Neville Baldacchino’s murder.

Moreover, the PN said, it was recently found that he was given three government plots for just €20,000. This was uncovered by a story in Times of Malta.

The PN said that Mr Zammit’s negative record clearly showed he could not be trusted. He was a very close friend of the Prime Minister and wielded much probably. In spite of all the scandals he was involved in, he kept being given one appointment after the other.

Mr Agius also said the party had reservations to the fact that no consultation was carried out in the process through which the government removed the administration of local wardens from councils and handed it to Mr Zammit.

It expressed disapproval to the fact that Dr Bonnici and Parliamentary Secretary Stefan Buontempo did not keep their word that the changes agreed in the parliamentary debate would be carried out.

In a statement later, the government said that while it understood that in a democracy it was good to discuss and, if necessary, oppose, it was very wrong to have a policy of extremism, boycotts, walkouts and absolute negativism which replaced sane debate.

This government had inherited a very weak situation in the local enforcement sector, which was considered to be there only to financially burden the people.

The government said it was committed to continue implementing positive change in full consultation with councils and genuine stakeholders who wanted to see progress.