The House of Representatives has started to debate a Bill which will make Parliament autonomous of the government and the Civil Service.

The Bill was presented by Leader of the House Louis Grech and seconded by Opposition whip David Agius.

Mr Grech said this was legislation which would make the Maltese administration more modern and democratic. 

It would create a Parliamentary Service and give the House the legal personality, budget, resources and structure to function more efficiently.

This was a link in a series of developments including the building of the new parliament building, the transmission of sittings, the recruitment of research analysts and the setting up of new parliamentary committees, on health and economic affairs. 

Standing Orders would be amended and legislation on standards in public life would be enacted in the near future.

The Speaker was being given new powers in the administration of the House including recruitment and all other administrative affairs, where he would work with the House Business Committee. 

An Administrative Board would be set up to assist the Speaker and the Clerk of the House. The Office of the Clerk was being given a stronger legal position and the Clerk could be removed only by the President with the support of a majority of the members of the House for reasons of proven misbehavior or illness. 

Public funds would be allocated to the House in the same way as is given to the Ombudsman and the Auditor-General.

Workers who would transfer from the Civil Service to the Parliamentary Service would not suffer a deterioration of working conditions.

The remuneration of the Speaker and MPs would be decided by an independent board.

SPEAKER TO ASSUME ACTING ROLE OF PRESIDENT

Mr Grech said the Constitution was being amended so that it would no longer be the Chief Justice would would assume the role of Acting President if there was no agreement on who should fill this role.

The current arrangement, he said, blurred the distinction between the legislative and judicial branches of the state.

Instead, it would be the Speaker who would serve as Acting President if there was disagreement on an appointment for that office. 

Mr Grech said the new legislation did not go into whether MPs should be full time or part-time. That was something which would need to be discussed further.

NEED FOR DEEPER REFORM

Mario de Marco, deputy leader of the opposition, said the Opposition agreed with this Bill. Perhaps one could have gone for deeper changes, he said.

One needed to discuss how the role of MPs could be improved and how they could carry out their duties better. Some parliamentary practices which made sense 40 years ago no longer made sense NOW. 

A clear distinction was needed between the Executive and the Legislative. That was why it was wrong for MPs to sit on administrative boards set up by the government. This was something which needed to be reversed.

Indeed, should the government and the opposition be represented on the Mepa board?

Dr de Marco underlined the role of Parliament to scrutinize the government, and said the House, and particularly the opposition, should be given greater resources to perform this role and also to prepare themselves for increasingly complex legislation.

What was even more important, Dr de Marco said, was that the government was transparent in the House.

Labour had promised transparency, including submitting contracts to the House before they were signed. Alas, all this had been forgotten. The contracts with Electrogas, Shanghai Electric, Autobuses de Leon and the full contract with Henley had not been published.

Dr de Marco said MPs should find the courage for a deeper reform. They should discuss what needed to be changed and set out a timetable to do it.