Ministers being tagged in social media posts paid for by public funds are "ethically dubious" the Standards Commissioner has said.
This comes as his latest report absolved Environment Minister Miriam Dalli of wrongdoing when she was tagged by popular singer Ira Losco in a post promoting a public park.
The case dates back to May 2023, when independent politician Arnold Cassola reported a sponsored social media post made by Losco promoting a Project Green park that had recently opened.
Losco had tagged both Environment Ministery Miriam Dalli and Steve Ellul, who at the time was CEO of Project Green, in the post.
Cassola took issue with the fact that the post itself did not declare that it was sponsored and that he believed that Dalli and Ellul were unjustly promoting themselves on the back of advertising funded by taxpayers.
In his investigation, Former Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi found that Losco had been contacted by Project Green's director of communications because she had previously posted about going to public parks on her social media pages of her own volition.
When questioned, Losco said she had provided Project Green with her rates, as aside from her regular work she also made money off her social media following as an influencer.
Project Green's communications director, Pamela Cann Rodgers, told the commissioner that while negotiating the terms of the agreement, she had told Losco to specifically tag Project Green in the sponsored posts. When revising her marketing plan, Cann Rodgers realised that the reach of the sponsored post could be widened if Dalli and Ellul were tagged in it, as they both have a sizable online audience. She duly instructed Losco to include Dalli and Ellul's social media accounts when tagging posts.
Rodgers said that while she sometimes communicated directly with the ministry about her work, in this case, she had no communication with either Dalli or ministry officials about Losco's posts.
In her reply to the commissioner's questions, Minister Dalli said that she had neither authorised nor requested that her personal profile be tagged in such sponsored posts and that no one responsible for the ministry's communications had requested it either.
"I inform you that tagging of my personal profile was never authorized by me, nor was it done at my request or on my instructions," Dalli said.
"I requested the Chief Executive Officer of the Project Green Agency to take all necessary measures to ensure that my profile is not tagged whenever there are sponsored posts. I also asked him to provide clear direction to those managing the communication for that entity to prevent this from happening again in the future," she further added.
While the standards commissioner ultimately found no wrongdoing in Dalli's actions and ruled he could not investigate Steve Ellul due to the narrow definitions of the standing orders, Azzopardi nonetheless singles out that tagging of ministers in publically funded social media posts as "not a good practice".
"This could be perceived as an inappropriate benefit in the form of personal publicity being given to the individual concerned through public funds. If such tagging is done under the instructions of a person covered by the Standards in Public Life Act, it could potentially be considered an ethical breach under the Act," he said.
"This tagging remains problematic even if it does not lead to any increase in advertising expenses. If a minister appears to benefit from a government advertising campaign, it can easily be assumed that the entire campaign is conducted for the minister’s benefit and that its official purpose is merely a pretext. Therefore, it is important that ministers do not appear in government-sponsored advertising."
In reaction, Dalli welcomed the commissioner's report and said that reports of this nature are trying to prevent the government from showcasing its good work.
"Arnold Cassola, like the Nationalist Party, wants to use the standards commissioner to try to stop us from showcasing the work we are doing. Worse still, he hopes to embarrass those who legitimately associate themselves with projects implemented by the government that benefit society," Dalli said.
"We will continue to fulfil our promises and communicate them, as it is our duty to inform our constituents."
Cassola: Ministers should not be tagged by taxpayer-funded entities
Cassola said the ruling made it clear that ministers "should no longer be tagged by public entities funded through taxpayers' money."
He said he was glad to hear that Minister Dalli had immediately ordered that her tag be removed after the Commissioner raised the issue with her.
"We all make mistakes in life. The important thing is remedying them once attention is drawn, rather than arrogantly persisting in the abuse,” he said.