Both Justice Minister Owen Bonnici and Attorney General Peter Grech failed to ask ministries to end all ties with Nexia BT following the Egrant report to which they both had access.

Interviewed this afternoon, Grech said the issue did not arise from the report, which he yesterday handed to Opposition leader Adrian Delia after a two-year legal battle.

Grech said he did not think yesterday’s Constitutional judgment rendered his position untenable.

“As Attorney General you get involved in a number of constitutional cases. Some you win. Others are not successful. That does not mean that your position is compromised because that is part of the job.”

“Personally, I do not agree with the decision but of course I accept the decision as in any country which is subject to the rule of law. In fact, within a few hours I had already handed over a copy of the Egrant report to the leader of the Opposition.”

Asked whether there was anything in the report that should have compelled him to advise government to end all times with financial advisory company Nexia BT, Grech said: “I cannot really comment about the Egrant report and to be honest I cannot claim to know it all by heart. It is a 1,500 page report. What I had done when this issue arose in July last year was publish the main conclusions which were the crux of the reason why the report was drawn up and then to refer the report for continuation of investigations.”

He said there were certain things which the report concluded on and others on which it recommended further investigation. Those investigations are ongoing, he added.

Asked whether there was a reluctance of the AG’s office to act on crimes involving people at the highest echelons of government, Grech said:

“As you know, under our system, the prosecutor does not investigate. The prosecutor, prosecutes. The investigation is done by the police. It is up to the police to decide when the case is mature enough to take the case to court so it is not a matter of the Attorney General’s office as it is currently set up. Of course when the police request our advice, we are always ready to assist in giving them with advice even about investigations. I want to make it clear that AG as constituted at present does not investigate, it prosecutes.”

Asked whether there was a reluctance to act, Grech said: “I cannot say there is a reluctance to act. As we know financial investigations and investigations involving other jurisdictions do take time. As far as I know there are magisterial inquiries about all cases reported in the media somehow or other or also discovered by police themselves. I know for the last two years we have been criticised both locally and internationally by implying that we are doing nothing and that we do not want to carry investigations forward. But I think the breakthroughs in investigations recently show that was not the case. The fact that you cannot make information available about ongoing investigations does not mean that investigations are not carried out.”

Grech was speaking at the ceremony in which Victoria Buttigieg was appointed State Advocate in a move which splits the AG’s role in two. From tomorrow, Grech will assume the sole role of Public Prosecutor.

Speaking to Lovin Malta at the same ceremony, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici clarified that he appointed Nexia BT as consultants in 2014 and then reduced their involvement to a part-time role when the Panama Papers case erupted. He then ended all ties in 2017.

“In the short period I used their services the roles were principally about EU funds.”

Asked if he advised the government to end all contracts with Nexia BT following the Egrant inquiry, Bonnici said:

“I don’t know if there are other ministries that use their services… I don’t know how to answer.”

Bonnici said he did not think the Attorney General’s position was untenable following yesterday’s court judgment.

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