Police summon Sliema mayor, council contractor to answer on alleged breach of financial rules
Sliema mayor Nikki Dimech was today summoned to the police headquarters in Floriana, to answer questions related to financial decisions taken at the Sliema local council.
MaltaToday is informed that the police’s economic crimes unit today summoned other members and council contractors of the local council, to answer questions on an investigation into an alleged breach of financial regulations.
This was the latest development in the inquiry being conducted by the Office of the Prime Minister’s internal audit investigations department (IAID) into the council’s workings.
The case was referred to the IAID by the department for local government, over the alleged mismanagement of funds by the council. The allegations were first reported by PN councillors themselves to the PN secretary-general Paul Borg Olivier.
33-year old mayor Nikki Dimech later absented himself for some six weeks from council meetings. On 23 July, he called for an emergency meeting to discuss ‘the position of the council’s executive secretary’. The meeting was never held after it was declared illegal by director of local government Martin Bugelli. According to the law, no 'emergency meeting' could be held before 5:30pm, without any record of unanimous approval of the meeting.
A week later, on 29 July, another urgent meeting called by Dimech revealed that the mayor had been summoned by PN secretary-general Paul Borg Olivier and briefed on the meeting before taking any haphazard action against the executive secretary Svetlana Curmi.
During the meeting at the Sliema council, little was said of why the position of the executive secretary was in discussion, and indeed, no discussion on her position took place either. Dimech said the meeting was called to “clear the air” with Curmi, with whom relations do not appear to be serene. Sources say the secretary, a career civil servant who was appointed to Sliema council only two months ago, was instrumental in flagging the financial irregularities that were later sent to the IAID for investigation.