Justice Minister seeks Speaker's decision after PAC chairman cancels sitting

Justice Minister Owen Bonnici raised a point of order in parliament after a sitting of the parliamentary public accounts committee was cancelled at the last minute by its chair, PN MP Tonio Fenech.

Fenech was called in for a meeting of the PN parliamentary group and a subsequent address to reporters by whip David Agius, right after the Opposition this evening walked out in protest to a ruling delivered by the Speaker.

This evening the PAC was scheduled to continue discussing the IIP contract and during which the Justice Minister was set to testify.

Bonnici said he was only informed of the sitting's cancellation through the committee's secretary after Fenech ordered the sitting be postponed.

"I obviously cannot be in two places at the same time," Fenech said, as Agius said he had called the MP in for an emergency meeting of the parliamentary group.

Bonnici however argued that the PAC was not just any other parliamentary committee, and there were established rules on how and in what manner a sitting can be postponed or canceled.

"The chair cannot just cancel a sitting. No committee is owned by one side of the House or another."

The Justice Minister proceeded to ask Speaker Anglu Farrugia to look into the issue and to determine whether Fenech had acted in breach of the standing orders. 

Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis, a member of the committee, accused the Opposition of placing the parliamentary group and a media conference before the PAC.