The Standards Commissioner has been asked by the PN to correct a mistake in a recent report about Energy Minister Miriam Dalli and ensure that the minister does not benefit from that mistake.

The commissioner, former chief justice Joseph Azzopardi, last week found that a statement issued by the ministry breached the ministerial code of ethics by being politically "partisan".   

The statement had hit back at criticism by the PN about projects led by Dalli’s ministry.

The Standards Commissioner had said that since the minister had apologised, he considered the matter closed.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Nationalist Party noted that the commissioner had said that Dalli was not responsible for the ministry at the time the statement was issued.

This, it said, was a serious mistake. She was appointed minister on November 23, 2020 while the report was issued in January 2021, when Dalli was minister and therefore bound by the ministerial code of ethics.  

The party said the Standards Commissioner therefore needed to correct his report and rather than close the case, he should send the report to the Parliamentary Standards Committee for its consideration.  

Karol Aquilina, shadow minister for justice, said it was unacceptable for ministers who abused their position to get off the hook because of 'mistakes' by the Standards Commissioner. 

PN MPs Mark Anthony Sammut and Ryan Callus have written to the speaker asking him to urgently convene the parliamentary committee for public standards.

 

 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.