A Bill to reform magisterial inquiries will require a higher degree of evidence before such inquiries are called, and judges will be involved in the process, the prime minister said on Sunday.
Speaking at a Labour Party event, he said the Bill would ensure that the evidence presented was admissible in court.
The reform will also look at other elements of the process, including giving victims and their families the right to be updated about ongoing inquiries, the way court experts are appointed, and their payment.
"It will be a holistic reform, not just about private requests for inquiries," Abela said in an interview with three journalists.
In December, lawyer Jason Azzopardi made a slate of requests for Magisterial inquiries on Gozo minister Clint Camilleri and economy minister Silvio Schembri, among others.
Abela reacted by promising to reform the system to stop people from "abusing" the system of inquiries and dragging people "through a calvary of judicial proceedings for nothing".
Abela said on Sunday that the reform Bill would be published in the coming days. Sources said it will be given priority in the parliamentary agenda.
Replying to reporters' questions, Abela said that the mechanism currently available to the people to request a magisterial inquiry was being used as a "political football," "revenge", and to "destroy people out of spite."
"We have seen a tool of the justice system being used to create injustice," he said.
He said that at present, the criteria to open an inquiry only needed an allegation.
"Once there's that, magistrates have their hands tied and must open an investigation," Abela said.
The evidence needed to open the inquiry was too little and the magistrate could not even consider if the evidence was admissible or not, he said.
"We cannot continue to have a situation where somebody puts an article in a newspaper and based on that, a magisterial inquiry is held".
He said that private citizens would still have the right to request a magisterial inquiry, but there needed to be responsibility.
The way how court experts were appointed for magisterial inquiries would also feature in the Bill.
€11 million were spent on the Vitals inquiry, Abela observed, saying such spending should have oversight.
"We could have built a school with that amount," he said.
Abela also spoke on the government's plans to grant legal protection to public officers, saying upstanding civil servants such as former permanent secretaries Alfred Camilleri and Joseph Rapa were unjustly facing criminal charges.