An MP asked ministers 300 times to list all direct orders they issued over the past nine months but he still has not received a single one.
Nationalist MP Jerome Caruana Cilia filed 298 parliamentary questions since last October. Every month, he asked each minister, including the prime minister, to give him a monthly list of direct orders issued. None of them replied.
Many redirected him to the government gazette, where all direct orders are published, and others simply told him they observe the law in their procurement processes.
But he is not having any of it.
It is impractical and unreasonable to identify each direct order by combing through hundreds of government gazette issues, he told Times of Malta. Besides, PQs are one of an MP’s few tools to hold the government accountable and refusing to answer them is simply not justifiable.
“This is an insult to taxpayers and honest citizens,” he said.
“PQs are also submitted following conversations and suggestions by workers, professionals and business owners, etc. We’re talking about public finance and, therefore, this information must be provided entirely and immediately for citizens to scrutinise.”
‘Complete lack of transparency’
Caruana Cilia, the opposition’s economy spokesperson, said that instead of giving him the requested lists, ministers have offered evasive answers that seem designed to dodge the question entirely.
“It demonstrates a complete lack of transparency,” he said. “The government is quick to say that it follows the rules. If so, why hesitate to publish the data?”
He said that, rather than remaining a tool only to be used in special cases, direct orders have been ‘normalised’.
“Direct orders seem to be the order of the day,” he said.
“This is unethical and, potentially, can be illegal, distorts competition by favouring one firm over another, and, given the lack of competition it supports, is likely to put on the taxpayer a higher cost to pay, which adds concern in the context of the spiralling debt levels this country is currently facing.”
Direct orders allow the government to bypass the usual bidding process and directly hire a company, typically for urgent needs or specialised expertise. However, the lack of competition inherent in direct orders raises concerns about fairness and potential cost inflation.
Speaker has ‘no power’ over replies
Questions were also sent to the speaker of the House, Anġlu Farrugia, who said he has no power over the replies provided to PQs but recommended that “ministers provide a copy of the information requested which is useful to the MPs asking the questions, and, at the same, for the House to have a record of the information requested even though it is already publicly available”.
“On occasion, he has even suggested that ministers initially provide at least a partial reply with the information which may be readily available, even if it does not fully answer the questions submitted,” a spokesperson for the speaker told Times of Malta.
She added the speaker cannot rule on the adequacy of replies as the standing orders simply do not grant him that power.
Farrugia's office noted that Erskine May, the rulebook which governs British parliamentary business, states that the Speaker's responsibility for questions "is limited to their compliance with the rules of the House. Responsibility in other respects rests with the Member who proposes to ask the question, and responsibility for answers rests with Ministers.”
However, Erskine May also provides clearer, stricter guidance on how ministers should answer questions, noting that ministers' replies to questions "should be helpful and clear and not simply refer to material on an official website."