Robert Abela has insisted his ministers’ finances are “in a most regular manner” after refusing a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to provide their declarations of assets.

“I scrutinised the asset declarations for all the ministers and parliamentary secretaries, and everything was most regular. We even had an auditor to assist us,” the prime minister said.

The Standards Commissioner has also been given a copy to scrutinise, he said.

Times of Malta reported last Monday that an FOI request for ministers’ wealth declarations was rejected by the Office of the Prime Minister. It justified its response by saying that the declarations are filed for the prime minister’s scrutiny.

Robert Abela insists his cabinet members’ asset declarations are “in order”. Video: Matthew Mirabelli

The office also pointed to a recent ruling by Parliament Speaker Anġlu Farrugia, which said cabinet members are under no obligation to publish the declarations.

Abela’s office further argued against the Times of Malta FOI request by saying that cabinet members had already presented a separate asset declaration as MPs to parliament.

He also referred to plans to reform the assets declaration process to require all MPs to file a more detailed declaration.

“There will be new obligations for all members of parliament, including those of the opposition. Among the obligations, and this is very interesting, MPs will have to declare their income,” he said.

Asked when the changes, first announced in January, will take place, the prime minister replied “in the very near future”.

At present, MPs file an asset declaration to the Speaker, while members of the cabinet file a more detailed declaration to the cabinet secretary, including bank accounts, property holdings and shares.

When he first announced the changes in January, Abela said all of Malta’s MPs should provide more detailed information about their wealth and how they are making their money.

He said it did not make sense to have two separate forms.

Abela previously said the Speaker and the Standards Commissioner were more appropriate figures than the prime minister to scrutinise the finances of MPs.

He would, therefore, give up his role of scrutinising the finances of the members of his cabinet.

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