Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1346072
2 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 3 MARCH 2021 NEWS COVID-19 CONTACT tracing has to be more efficient and enforcement of mitigation measures has to be stepped up, Opposition health spokesperson Stephen Spiteri said as COV- ID-19 cases surge. He warned that the rising trend was put- ting a strain on health services and had to be brought under control. Spiteri said the prevailing scenario was of concern as he called for more screening at the airport to deter COVID variants, strict- er enforcement and more resources for contact tracing. He also called for more manpower to be deployed at vaccination places to ensure a faster rollout of the coronavirus vaccine. On Tuesday, Malta registered a record number of cases with 336 new infections and three deaths. Spiteri steered clear from calling for a lockdown or curfew, insisting that such de- cisions were up to the health authorities to make. However, he lambasted the Prime Min- ister for giving the impression, earlier this year, that Malta would start running again in March. Opposition education spokesperson Clyde Puli praised schools for exercising disci- pline and effective control measures but said teachers were worried because contact tracing was taking too long. He asked whether government had plans in hand for remote learning and annual ex- aminations if the pandemic's trajectory ne- cessitated that schools are closed. PN calls for stricter enforcement and more efficient contact tracing Stephen Spiteri KURT SANSONE A Nationalist member of par- liament asked to jump the COVID-19 vaccine queue, Health Minister Chris Fearne has claimed. In a fiery exchange in parlia- ment on Tuesday afternoon, Fearne hit back at Opposition leader Bernard Grech's insin- uation that some people were jumping the vaccine queue. "I do have people asking me to jump the queue but I always refused… I also had a member of the Opposition parliamen- tary group asking me to jump the queue and told him off," Fearne hit back without nam- ing the MP. "If you want I can tell you in your ear who the MP was," Fearne said, adding he did not want to embarrass him in public. The exchange came on the back of a ministerial state- ment by Prime Minister Rob- ert Abela, who was reporting on a meeting of the European Council that discussed among other things the pandemic. Opposition MPs were criti- cal of government's handling of the pandemic as daily infec- tions have continued to surge, hitting a record 336 today. Deputy PM Chris Fearne says Opposition MP asked him to jump COVID-19 vaccine queue Azzopardi claims frame-up of tax official by civil service head and former police chief NICOLE MEILAK THE Nationalist MP Jason Az- zopardi has alleged a frame- up of a former tax official, by none other than Prime Minis- ter Rober Abela, the Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar and ex-Police Com- missioner Peter Paul Zammit. Azzopardi made the sensational claim in his winding-down speech on Tuesday evening. The MP claimed that in 2013, a former high-ranking tax audit of- ficer was forced to resign after being arrested, detained and interrogat- ed, ostensibly for refusing to heed Cutajar's suggestion to step down from his role. "This public officer was detained in the evening, all night and into the morning. He was subjected to a hu- miliating strip search that criminals are accustomed to, but not a hum- ble and good man like this officer in the Tax Department," he claimed of the man he said was a "scrupulous" tax official. Allegedly, Mario Cutajar had sent for the official in mid-April 2013, telling him to resign quietly - but the tax official subsequently refused. Cutajar called for him again two days later, reiterating the demand for man's resignation and threaten- ing that criminal charges would be made against him if he refuses to step down. Azzopardi said that the official was arrested on the basis of false crimi- nal suspicions by being summoned twice by the fomer Commissioner of Police, Peter Paul Zammit; Azzo- pardi even said Zammit had told the man he would be offered monetary compensation if he resigned quietly. "He continued to refuse because he had done nothing wrong, even though he was psychologically shat- tered, devastated, humiliated and helpless. He began to plead merci- fully to the Commissioner to stop this psychological torture and of- fered to face those who were invent- ing such a lie against him." Azzopardi said that at the time, inspector Angelo Gafà, now Po- lice Commissioner himself, was tasked with investigating the case, acting on the instructions of Peter Paul Zammit. However, according to the MP, Gafà intervened to re- lease the official, finding nothing to charge him with; then a few days after the incident he was transferred to the Malta Secret Service. Azzopardi also said that an as- sistant police commissioner in the Valletta district had received an anonymous letter illustrating these details. "He began accessing the April 2013 detention log and con- firmed that this public officer had in fact been detained. He opened a file on the case and began an investiga- tion. A few days later he was asked to pass the file to the Fraud Squad, and today we don't know what hap- pened to it." The official's family had requested legal assistance from a lawyer dur- ing his detainment; that lawyer, Az- zopardi said, had turned out to be Robert Abela, at the time not even a Labour MP. "Over those days, the lawyer spoke instead to Mario Cutajar and Ange- lo Gafa," he said. "This is the same Robert Abela who is Prime Minister today and says that the institutions are working." Azzopardi concluded by asking Robert Abela what he intended to do with Cutajar, having known about the Principal Permanent Sec- retary's action since 2013. "Why is Robert Abela comfortable with having a Principal Permanent Secretary who was willing to order such inhumane treatment towards an honest and exemplary public of- ficial? What hold does Mario Cuta- jar have on Robert Abela? Why did Abela never request any criminal action be taken against Peter Paul Zammit and Mario Cutajar?" Azzopardi said that Cutajar's place was not at Castille, but at the Corra- dino Correctional Facility. Chris Fearne PN MP Jason Azzopardi