The government will reform the assets declaration process of politicians, requiring all MPs to file a more detailed declaration to the Speaker of the House, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Sunday.
At present MPs file an assets 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.
Abela said all of Malta's MPs should provide more detailed information about their wealth and how they are making their money.
Fielding questions from journalists, Abela said it did not make sense to have two separate forms.
"There should just be one declaration for all Members of Parliament as the current system creates confusion" he told journalists at a Labour Party event.
That declaration will be presented to parliament.
He said the Speaker and the Standards Commissioner were more appropriate figures than the prime minister to scrutinize the finances of MPs. He would therefore give up his role of scrutinising the finances of the members of his cabinet.
He said the reform would promote good governance, improve transparency, and eliminate contradictions that could crop up when two declarations were filed.
Abela said he favoured broadening the criteria used in the MPs' declaration of assets.
"Currently, a minister is obliged to declare his income while a regular MP does not," he observed.
The people deserved to know if MPs had a potential conflict of interest between their parliamentary and private work.
Did it make sense, for example, that an MP, who was the shadow minister pushing for the sale of a hospital to the government, was also the lawyer of the person who wanted to sell that property?
Unlike previous years, ministers have not tabled the annual assets declaration for 2023.
Newly launched party Momentum has reported the prime minister and his cabinet to the Standards Commissioner over the failure to disclose the declarations to parliament.
On Sunday, Abela said he will be replying to the Standards Commissioner, by outlining his plans for reform.
Last week, Clayton Bartolo, the former tourism minister, also asked the Standards Commissioner to investigate whether Adrian Delia, the shadow minister for health, was using his parliamentary privilege to serve his private legal work.