Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/897139
maltatoday SUNDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2017 News 7 strations calling for justice to be done with Caruana Galizia. Can the government fire Grech? No. The Constitution affords the AG security of tenure and he can only be removed from office if a two-thirds majority in Parliament approves a motion of impeach- ment. The reasons for removal are either inability to perform the functions of his office as a result of infirmity or proved misbehav- iour. The Opposition has put no such motion forward and even if it does, the government side is unlikely to play ball. Muscat has insisted the AG does not take or- ders from him. How can Grech be replaced? Apart from an impeachment process, the AG can be replaced if he resigns or retires. Retire- ment is compulsory at age 65. What has the Opposition accused Grech of wrongdoing? The PN has insisted that Grech reneged on his duty to prosecute Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi and the PM's chief of staff Keith Schembri, among others, on sus- picions of money laundering and kickbacks found in reports drawn up by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit. What are the cases? The FIAU had carried out an audit of Ta' Xbiex-based Pila- tus Bank and flagged suspicious transactions involving various politically exposed persons. The FIAU report had implied that Schembri received kickbacks from Nexia BT owner Brian Tonna from the sale of Maltese citizenship. Schembri and Tonna deny any wrongdoing. Another claim, said to have come from an FIAU report, involves alleged payments by the company oper- ating the LNG storage tanker at Delimara via a Dubai firm to the accounts of two Panama compa- nies set up by Mizzi and Schem- bri. The pair deny the accusa- tions. How does Grech feature in all this? The PN's principle accusation is directed at the police for fail- ing to act on the FIAU findings but the Opposition subsequently called on Grech to use the pow- ers vested in him by the Preven- tion of Money Laundering Act to initiate a criminal investigation. However, Grech insisted the law did not empower him to start a criminal investigation and issue criminal charges as the Opposi- tion demanded. Grech also denied being privy of the investigations carried out by the FIAU, adding the board of governors, which he chaired played no role whatsoever in the unit's investigations. What is the PN demanding? The PN wants Grech to resign or be removed. It also wants his replacement to be chosen on the basis of a two-thirds parlia- mentary majority, which is not something that is catered for at law. The Opposition believes this method of choosing an AG will ensure the person occupying the post would enjoy the trust of both sides of the House. The home we really want #OneStepCloser A special fixed rate offer of 2.5% until 31 March 2020 is available for first time buyers taking a home loan of up to €300,000. Representative example of a Classic Home Loan based on a loan amount of €140,000 being made available to a first-time buyer by HSBC Bank Malta p.l.c. at a fixed borrowing interest rate of 2.5% for the first 24 months and a variable borrowing interest rate of 3% p.a. for the remaining 336 months. The APRC will be 3% p.a. The loan will be repayable in 24 equal monthly instalments of €555.83, 335 equal monthly instalments of €591.32 and one final instalment of €560.61. The total sum payable throughout the term of the loan assuming the variable interest rate remains unchanged will be €212,314.43. Applicable charges on this loan are as follows - processing fee of €50, processing (legal) fee of €100, booking fee of €100, updating of searches fees of €41.70 and a fee for post-deed checking of hypothecary charge of €30. 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Take advantage of our BEST HOME LOAN RATES Labour's five police commissioners WHEN the Labour Party won the 2013 election, one of the first decisions taken by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was to fire the serving police commissioner, John Rizzo, and replace him by Peter Paul Zammit. At the time, Rizzo was investigating former European Commissioner John Dalli. Since then, the Labour government has replaced the commissioner another three times, making the current serving one an unprecedented fifth in four years under Labour. Peter Paul Zammit went on to drop the charges against a man who had assaulted police officers and practically saved Dalli from prosecution after failing to cooperate with OLAF, the anti- fraud agency of the European Union. When he was let go, he was replaced by Ray Zammit, who was shortly thereafter accused of gross negligence by an independent inquiry over his handling of a shooting involving a minister's driver. Zammit ended up having to resign but was later selected to head the traffic enforcement agency. Zammit's two sons were found to have business interests while serving as police officers. Michael Cassar took over from Ray Zammit, but his tenure in office lasted less than a year and four months. He resigned, citing health reasons, a day after he was handed a report by the Financial Intelligence and Analysis Unit (FIAU) calling for a police investigation into the Prime Minister's chief of staff Keith Schembri, mentioned in the Panama Papers together with minister Konrad Mizzi. Cassar was replaced by the current incumbent, Lawrence Cutajar, who concluded that an investigation into the two was not necessary. Following new revelations and allegations by Daphne Caruana Galizia on Pilatus Bank, Cutajar was filmed walking nonchalantly out of a rabbit restaurant in Imgarr, instead of launching an investigation into the bank. A former bank employee had claimed that Egrant – a third secret company mentioned in the Panama Papers – belonged to Michelle Muscat, wife of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.