Home Minister says police do not need prompting to investigate

Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said the police do not need any prompting to investigate, and does so when it feels there is a need for an investigation.

Camilleri was asked to say whether the police are investigating allegations that the wife of former minister Clayton Bartolo, Amanda Muscat, received kickbacks for a Malta Tourism Authority contract.

Camilleri said that the government does not intervene in the police's work. "It is no longer the time that the minister tells the police what to do," he said. The police work independently from the government, "this is the approach I have always taken," Camilleri said.

Bartolo resigned on Tuesday after suspicions his wife was receiving payments from a private firm were flagged by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit to the police.

Bartolo and fellow minister Clint Camilleri were found to have breached ethics by the Standards Commissioner when Muscat was given a consultancy job without having the necessary qualifications.