Police chief nominee to undergo historic grilling on Monday

Newly-nominated police chief Angelo Gafà will tomorrow be facing parliamentary scrutiny in a historic grilling before the Public Appointments Committee.

Gafà, who is currently CEO of the police force, was formally nominated by Cabinet earlier this month following the implementation of a new process for appointing the police commissioner.

The PN, however, are expected to not participate in the grilling. The party had lamented that in effect nothing had changed, despite the new method of appointment for the police chief.

The parliamentary committee could have technically stopped the nomination, but the government enjoys a majority of representatives. The grilling will be held in public.

The method of appointment was changed earlier this year. A call for applications was issued and candidates were interviewed by the Public Service Commission.

The commission then gave Cabinet a shortlist of two names.

Prior to the law being changed, the police commissioner was chosen solely by the prime minister with no call for applications and no grilling.

The government has insisted that the new process makes the appointment more transparent.

Cabinet said that it had decided to nominate Gafà because he was "the most qualified candidate".