Pullicino Orlando dubs Beppe Fenech Adami ‘pea-brain’ in PAC tit-for-tat

Only former prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami could control Austin Gatt, the former Nationalist minister responsible of transport and infrastructure.

Appearing before the parliamentary public accounts committee, former Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando was called in as a witness by the government members on the committee analyzing Enemalta’s fuel procurement between 2008 and 2013.

The animosity that existed between Pullicino Orlando and Gatt was made amply clear during the last legislature. Then an independent MP, Pullicino Orlando had also called for Gatt’s resignation as transport minister following the Arriva fiasco.

Indeed, this evening Pullicino Orlando cited Austin Gatt’s attitude as one of the reasons he had resigned the PN parliamentary group.

“Gatt, especially during the last legislature, used to go his way a lot. Eddie Fenech Adami could hold his reins, but Gonzi couldn’t … just look at the BWSC, the Arriva and Drydocks. Over and over again, decisions were taken arbitrarily. I didn’t agree with him, and neither did other MPs,” he said.

As Justice Minister Owen Bonnici and Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis probed Pullicino Orlando about his time within the PN parliamentary group, a discussion on energy between the former MP and Beppe Fenech Adami degenerated.

At one point, Pullicino Orlando also called Fenech Adami “a pea-brain’ [mohh ta’ pizella] after the Nationalist MP kept referring to Pullicino Orlando’s affinity with the Labour government.

“There’s nothing shameful in being part of this government … you judge people’s worth on what they can do and not on their political leaning,” Pullicino Orlando told Fenech Adami.

Pullicino Orlando had been telling the PAC that he had voiced concern over a legal notice passed by the previous administration that seemed to accommodate the BWSC.

“The PN had been promising a switch to gas since 1999 so we couldn’t understand the sudden choice to use heavy fuel oil,” Pullicino Orlando said.

This prompted Fenech Adami to remind his ex-colleague that the BWSC plant could have easily been switched to gas, yet the Labour government kept it running on heavy fuel oil.

Calling Pullicino Orlando “a government spokesman”, Fenech Adami asked him whether he was satisfied with Labour’s delay in switching to gas, to which Pullicino Orlando replied: “I hope that we can switch to gas soon … just like the PN promised in 1999.”