Allow me to publish decisions not to investigate complaints, says standards czar
Joseph Azzopardi says two media houses had 'radically different reports' about his decision to drop an investigation into Alex Borg’s comments on generic medicines
Parliament's Standards Commissioner on Friday reiterated his call to be given the power to publish decisions when he decides not to investigate a complaint.
Chief justice emeritus Joseph Azzopardi has made a similar call before -twice in 2023 and another time in 2024 - as he believes this would help prevent "selective, wrong or deceitful" interpretations of such decisions.
In one instance in 2023, MP Rosianne Cutajar had claimed that a standards commission probe into her income as an Institute of Tourism Studies consultant had vindicated her. But the complainant, NGO Repubblika, had subsequently released the commissioner's report in full. It revealed that the probe could not go ahead on a technicality, as the complaint was time-barred.
This time commissioner Azzopardi reiterated his call after, in December, he dropped an investigation into Alex Borg’s comments about generic medicines because the code of ethics governing MPs does not impose the obligation of honesty.
The PN leader had gone on record promising that a Nationalist government would ensure there are no medicine shortages and that medicines are of “good quality, not generics”.
In a letter he sent to the Speaker of the House Anġlu Farrugia on January 21, Azzopardi notes that two media houses - namely One News and Net News - reported the commissioner's decision not to investigate Borg in "a radically different manner".
Making it clear that his letter was not about which media house reported the truth, he said the different versions could be the result of the fact that he could not publish the decision. Azzopardi added he only shared the decision with the complainant, Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela, and the leader of the Opposition.
He lamented that, according to rules set in March 2019, he could only publish decisions about investigations that actually took place. The idea behind this rule was to protect people facing allegations from undue damage, since such allegations were not going to be investigated and therefore could not be deemed true or otherwise.
Azzopardi added that, however, in many cases, such allegations would already have been made public, and people would also know that the office of the commissioner was asked to look into the matter.
"In such cases, the fact that I cannot publish the decision means only that whoever wants to provide a false picture of my decision can easily do so. It is not the first time that such a thing happened.
"I believe it is high time that procedures established by the committee are revised in light of such experiences. Whenever this office decides it should not look into a complaint, it should have the powerto publish the decision if it deems justified in the circumstances - especially if such a decision is about an allegation that is already in the public domain."