Playing the devil’s advocate
A long shadow hangs over attorney general Victoria Buttigieg and her office
The worst vice is advice, declares John Milton, the owner of a New York law firm in the film The Devil’s Advocate. The experience of Malta’s attorney general’s office in its former life – though the consequences persist to this very day – seems to confirm that.
On Peter Grech’s watch, the ‘old’ AG’s office was mired in controversy. Appointed by a Nationalist administration in 2010, Grech, who resigned a year ago, came under fierce criticism when the Panama Papers were leaked and no action was taken against former cabinet minister Konrad Mizzi and the then prime minister’s top aide, Keith Schembri.
Grech was accused of being a government puppet and faced a long list of accusations from various quarters. He was even found guilty by an appeals court of violating the leader of the opposition’s human rights, by refusing to give him a copy of the Egrant inquiry findings which he had forwarded to the prime minister.
When Grech relinquished office last September, he was succeeded by his deputy, Victoria Buttigieg. Not even a year into her new role and she is already in the soup. It seems the Electrogas curse, which caused havoc within Joseph Muscat’s administration, will not stop haunting the attorney general’s office.
The findings of the public inquiry into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination put her in a bad light by implying that, just like her predecessor, she acted more like a puppet of the government of the day than a servant of the state.
It emerges that she had been involved in discussions with the legal team of Electrogas on a security-of-supply agreement that would, in turn, serve to secure a hefty loan for the company. According to the inquiry, her advice was that the signature of the minister piloting the project would suffice and there would be no need for cabinet or parliament approval.
“Advice by the attorney general to bypass parliament and cabinet to solve a problem, whatever its nature, does not sound right and does not put one’s mind at rest that the office was first and foremost acting in the interest of the state rather than of the government of the day,” the three judges conducting the inquiry remarked.
The testimony given by Grech before the public inquiry clearly shows the sort of pressure, not to use a stronger term, that he and Buttigieg were under from the lawyers of Electrogas and the lenders. The line of questioning by the three judges indicates they were not willing to accept that the government’s two lawyers at no point succumbed to such pressure, as it results from the comment mentioned above.
The attorney general always enjoyed constitutional protection. The office is independent and “shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority”. And yet.
Times of Malta tried to hear what Buttigieg would have to say about the damning statement made by the public inquiry but she preferred to remain silent.
She evidently fails to understand that the shadow hanging over her personally extends to her office, which now no longer advises the government on legal matters but handles criminal proceedings.
Her present role frees her from the ‘vice’ of advice but, to quote John Milton, the film character, again, lawyers are the devil’s ministry. What the national interest demands, especially at this delicate phase the country is in, is that the attorney general serves exclusively as the people’s lawyer.