Former Nationalist general secretary Clyde Puli yesterday said he is unaware of any alleged illicit communication between the ex-boss of the party’s media arm and murder suspect Yorgen Fenech.
Portelli, who was appointed as executive chairman of the PN’s media wing by former opposition leader Adrian Delia in 2017, resigned from the party’s administration after a meeting with Bernard Grech on Friday.
It came after
Lovin Maltareported that Portelli had reached out to Fenech to help resolve the salary problems within the PN when he served as the party’s head of media.
That was in 2019, when Fenech had been outed as the owner of 17 Black, the company that leaked emails indicated was designed to funnel kickbacks into offshore structures set up for Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi.
MPs from both sides of the House on Wednesday voiced concern about the way how Twitter was able to ban (then) President Donald Trump’s account.
Minister Owen Bonnici and Nationalist MP Clyde Puli said that while they understood the shameful circumstances which had led Twitter to its decision, the fact that a private company had such powers, even against a sitting US president, should be a matter of concern for all those who discussed checks and balances.
The discussion came up as parliament was debating changes to electoral boundaries.
Bonnici said that separation of powers was an important element of the electoral system. Malta’s electoral system, despite its defects, was far better than that of many other countries.
AUM’s external quality audit is ongoing, Education Minister says
An external audit of the American University of Malta to determine whether it has satisfied licencing conditions is still underway
20 January 2021, 11:32am
by Kurt Sansone
Government is committed to ensure that the American University of Malta fulfils all its contractual and licencing obligations, Education Minister Justyne Caruana said.
She was replying to a parliamentary question by Opposition education spokesperson Clyde Puli on the external quality audit the educational authorities had to undertake of the institution.
Puli asked whether the minister was going to publish the audit report.
“The external quality audit by the Authority for Advanced and Higher Education is ongoing,” Caruana replied, adding that government was committed to ensure that contractual obligations imposed on AUM “are adhered to in their entirety”.
Gavin Gulia will have to be vetted by a parliamentary committee before he can be reinstated as chairman of the Malta Tourism Authority.
Gulia, who was elected as an MP to replace Edward Scicluna only to resign a few minutes later last Wednesday, has said that the prime minister wants him to stay on as MTA chairman, a role he has fulfilled since 2013.
Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo confirmed on Friday that Gulia would have to face parliamentary scrutiny before being reinstated.
“A few moments after Gulia’s resignation from parliament, I submitted his nomination as the Malta Tourism Authority’s chairman for vetting via the public appointments committee’s (PAC) chairman,” Bartolo said.
Malta Teachers Union Orders Two-Day Strike After Prime Minister Refuses Return To Online Learning
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Malta Union of Teachers has instructed its members to go on strike tomorrow and Friday after Prime Minister Robert Abela refused their request for schools to go online for the next two days, with the COVID-19 situation evaluated over the weekend.
MUT president Marco Bonnici confirmed that this industrial action will apply to teachers at primary, secondary and post-secondary levels of education.
He announced the strike at a press conference outside Castille, following a meeting with Abela and Education Minister Justyne Caruana.
“The education authorities shouldn’t have ignored the health authorities’ advice for schools to reopen as though there isn’t a problem,” he said. “COVID-19 cases are increasing and we don’t yet know what the impact of the new virus variant will be.”