The Malta Employers’ Association (MEA) has condemned a proposed amendment to the Interpretation Act and urged the government take a step back to re-think it.
The amendment will allow administrative fines issued by regulatory entities to be interpreted as criminal punishment. The government moved the bill after failing to obtain two-thirds majority for a direct amendment of the Constitution back in October.
The bill is being opposed by the Opposition with the Nationalist Party calling for it to be dropped after it was criticised by the Chamber of Advocates, constitutional experts, the dean of the Faculty of Law, former European Human Rights Court judge Giovanni Bonello, former attorney general and European Court judge Anthony Borg Barthet and former commissioner for laws and MP Franco Debono.
The association said on Thursday that what is being contemplated goes against the principle of due process and divests the court of its fundamental role to prosecute criminal offences to authorities, who should never have the right to impose criminal sanctions.
The MEA said that this was also one of the objections it raised to the proposed Equality Bill, not because it is opposed to the promotion of equality, but because people or organisations accused of any criminal infringements should have a right to a fair hearing in a court of law, and not arbitrarily in front of persons of trust.
The backlog in the law courts should not be an excuse to bypass the justice system which is enshrined in the constitution, it said.
“What is required is efficient law courts, rather than denying people and companies their rights by taking them to a kangaroo court,” it said.
Allowing public officers and authorities to impose penalties that go beyond administrative fines is “unacceptable and unconstitutional”, it insisted adding that such a measure could lead to massive corruption and instances of a gross miscarriage of justice.
Besides being intrinsically wrong, what is being contemplated could send a wrong message to potential investors and cause further harm to Malta’s reputation, the MEA said.