Irate MPs send spin-crazy OPM in a U-turn

Gonzi distanced himself from his MPs’ antics in the PAC one day, but the next day he had to soften his ‘criticism’ by claiming he directed them to take their controversial position, after the MPs objected to his placating tone.

The prime minister was given an opportunity this week to distance himself from his MPs’ objections – spearheaded by Austin Gatt – to the summoning of witnesses to the PAC on the power station extension contract.

“The outcome of this exercise could be that the PAC would need to summon other witnesses… If after listening to the Auditor General there are still things that need to be made clearer, then we will see… What I will surely oppose is direct or indirect undermining of the Auditor,” Gonzi said on Thursday.

The Times ran with the title ‘Gonzi leaves door ajar for more witnesses’, with the PM’s comments flying in the face of Gatt’s objections to summon witnesses on the Delimara contract.

But he was forced to commit a volte-face the next day after the OPM was faced with irate government members of the PAC objecting to Gonzi’s mollifying tone.

On Friday, communications head Gordon Pisani wrote in with a short letter to the editor: “The OPM would like to make it abundantly clear the position taken by the government members at the last PAC meeting, when the government side voted against the production of witnesses other than the Auditor General, was the position agreed to in Cabinet and which the Prime Minister had directed the members to take.”

Much changed over 24 hours: first the OPM tried to reverse the impression it had despatched Gatt to rumble the PAC. Even more controversially, Speaker Michael Frendo had ruled that PAC members could contest the agenda – leaving it wide open for the four government members to discard the agenda set by the chairman, Labour MP Charles Mangion.

Aware of the dangerous precedent set by Frendo, Gonzi handed down some conciliatory comments: “We can listen to the Auditor General and then if there are witnesses who need to be summoned we will look into that situation and decide.”

But the OPM was instantly faced with the disapproval of the government’s PAC members: Austin Gatt, Philip Mifsud, Robert Arrigo and Tonio Fenech.

The next day on Friday, the OPM decided that Austin Gatt’s objections had now been a “position agreed to in Cabinet” that Gonzi himself had “directed the members to take.”