Standards in public life have fallen to such low levels that even lying has become par for the course and deemed undeserving of serious sanction.
A year ago, Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg’s credibility was questioned by none other than a magistrate. Barely two months later, the commissioner for standards in public life said he did not believe Borg when he insisted he had not blasphemed during a discussion programme on TV. His boss, Robert Abela, did not even show the minister a yellow card.
Former junior minister Rosianne Cutajar has an equally serious credibility problem. Although she denied any wrongdoing, the standards commissioner did not believe her. In a report on her conduct, he concluded that, on a balance of probabilities, she had acted as a broker in a property deal involving Yorgen Fenech and breached parliamentary ethical standards when she failed to declare her income from the 2019 sale.
The parliamentary committee for standards in public life eventually decided to accept the commissioner’s conclusions. But, thanks to her two Labour colleagues on the committee and the Labour administration’s guardian angel in parliament – Speaker Anġlu Farrugia, Cutajar escaped with a mere slap on the wrist.
Even the “strict reprimand” that Farrugia had promised to send – instead of the suspension demanded by the opposition – turned out to be a letter weakly informing her of the committee’s decision, written by the clerk of the house on behalf of the speaker.
However, in accepting to endorse the commissioner’s report and to reprimand her, her colleagues have acknowledged, certainly by implication, that Cutajar lied when she denied her role in the property deal.
The fact that all she faced by way of sanction was a diluted reprimand reflects the sort of culture that prevails in the Abela administration. By giving it the official stamp of parliament, the government has effectively formalised impunity for its members of parliament.
In reality, Cutajar has become something of an embarrassment for Abela and his government. She is also being investigated by the tax compliance unit over the Fenech property deal and by the Council of Europe over a 2019 speech in which she shot down a colleague’s report on the Daphne Caruana Galizia case and the rule of law in Malta. That report explicitly referred to Fenech and his secret offshore company 17 Black.
The Fenech connection is perhaps of particular significance in the Cutajar case. Her communications with him have come to light, as did the messages the businessman exchanged with a Labour MP on the standards committee, Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis, and with the commissioner for revenue. It also emerged that Fenech offered the revenue commissioner a job, which he turned down.
It looks like the doubts and suspicions on Cutajar can only linger or become stronger. It is time for her to call it a day. If she is unwilling to fully realise the consequences of her actions, the prime minister surely does. He should act accordingly, as he had already done by removing her from ministerial office.
This would only be a start to solving the problem, which is that standards in public life are close to rock bottom. Rather than halting the descent, Abela and his colleagues have kept digging, and the hole gets deeper.
The committee’s decision on Cutajar shows that standards in public life are only a mask behind which this administration hides its true colours, instead of a guide to behaviour that is accepted and followed by all those in politics and public administration.