Minister Without Portfolio Konrad Mizzi today refused to give a straight answer when asked if his wife Sai Mizzi was still on the government payroll in China.
According to the Shanghai Foreign Affairs Ministry’s website, Mrs Mizzi is the Consulate General for Malta in Shanghai.
Questioned about this today during a power cut press conference, Dr Mizzi told the press to ask “the relevant ministry”.
Pushed further, Dr Mizzi again referred journalists to “the responsible authorities”.
Questions sent by this paper yesterday to the Foreign Affairs Ministry have yet to be answered.
Last year, during his short-lived election as PL deputy leader, Dr Mizzi had said his wife would be relinquishing her envoy role in China.
“We discussed her role as a government envoy in Asia. We concluded that seeing my role would change, I will no longer be a minister with one portfolio but PL deputy leader with other responsibilities in government.
“I oversee various developments across government, including in the ministry where she works, we decided that Sai will be finishing off her current contract in August [2016],” Dr Mizzi had said, prior to being demoted to Minister Without Portfolio after his name appeared in the Panama Papers data leak.
Mrs Mizzi had been at the heart of controversy ever since she was appointed as special government envoy to China with a monthly package of €13,000.