Failure to publish assets declarations is a retrograde step - Repubblika

The prime minister's decision to hide the ministerial declaration of assets is a major step backward in the country's governance, the NGO Repubblika said.

It observed on Wednesday that Robert Abela has been defending his decision by saying that the process was being reformed for the declarations to be more detailed. Declarations would also need to be filed by all MPs. 

While it was good that MPs became more transparent, parliament did not fall under the prime minister. He was a member of parliament and like the government, he was accountable to parliament, not the other way around. He could not, therefore, expect to regulate how parliament operated. 

Furthermore, ministers had more opportunities for corruption than MPs and it was therefore fair and understandable that ministers were put under stricter public scrutiny. 

Repubblika noted that the prime minister was implying that the people did not need to see the ministerial declarations of assets because he had seen them, and they were fine. But the declarations were not filed to satisfy the prime minister's curiosity but as a tool for transparency and accountability, as judged by the people. And once he had scrutinised the ministers' declarations, who had scrutinised the prime minister's?