Updated - Adds reaction by Speaker's Office - A Magisterial inquiry has exonerated the opposition leader’s driver of all claims of misusing the fuel allocation for the Opposition leader’s official car, financed by Parliament.
“The inquiry’s conclusion is that there is absolutely no case against my driver,” Simon Busuttil told a press conference.
He expressed regret that the case ever came up and said that whoever was responsible in filing a baseless report now needed to assume his responsibilities.
The case was announced five months ago and the driver, Anthony Tabone, had been suspended by Mr Busuttil pending the investigations. However the Opposition always insisted that it knew of no abuse and the fuel allowance was never fully taken up.
In his press conference today Dr Busuttil expressed his solidarity with Mr Tabone and his family.
He said this case showed the difference in standards between the government and the opposition.
He recalled that had immediately suspended his driver, even if this case was a minor one. In contrast, the prime minister had not even suspended Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri over the Panama Papers, a far more serious case which actually merited their dismissal.
He also recalled that when this case broke, the Labour Party had called on him to assume his political responsibilities, even claiming that he had been caught in a serious case of fraud of public funds.
All this was obviously false, he said, but it was unfortunate that under Joseph Muscat, Labour had fallen to this level.
SPEAKER'S REACTION
In a reaction, the Office of the Speaker said the fuel allowance was taken in full every month for 30 months except for three occasions. That, and the fact that the odometer was read mistakenly on a regular basis by the driver led the Office to seek the assistance of the police to verify the true consumption of the vehicle.
It was the police, not the Office of the Speaker, which sought the Magisterial inquiry.
It also pointed out that the Speaker had refused Dr Busuttil's recommendation to suspend the driver pending investigations, and he was retained on full pay (although he did not work as Dr Busuttil's driver).
The Office said the Opel Insigna (diesel) car chosen by Dr Busuttil himself produced 21.6 miles per gallon. It noted that the inquiry had reported that the system used so far in the granting of fuel did not make allowance for human errors and it needed to be revised for better control over the input of information.
The recommendation will be taken up.