The chamber of commerce has urged the authorities to address “poor standards of governance and unethical behaviour by politicians” as it fears serious repercussions of yet another spiral of reputational damage” for the country.

Without mentioning any specific case or issue, the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry appealed to the “political class” to address the situation immediately.

The statement was issued hours after NGO Repubblika asked the new standards commissioner to investigate whether Economy Minister Silvio Schembri was breaching the ministerial code of conduct by allegedly being supported by businesses in the provision of constituency offices, and by using staff employed by the ministry in his private office.

It was recently reported that Schembri uses constituency offices in Siġġiewi and Luqa that do not belong to him. The office in Luqa belongs to the secretary general of the Malta Developers Association Paul Attard, while the one in Siġġiewi belongs to Anton Camilleri, who also sits on the MDA executive council.

The NGO also asked the commissioner to investigate Parliamentary Secretary Rosianne Cutajar following a Times of Malta report that the Labour MP did not list the existence of her “extra” job as an ITS consultant in her mandatory financial declarations to parliament for 2019. Cutajar revealed the job in chats with alleged murder mastermind Yorgen Fenech.

On Monday, the chamber said people in public office need to be mindful of the fact that, irrespective of their right to private life, when unethical behaviour becomes public knowledge, their position in public office becomes untenable.

"This is why people in public office should strive to maintain high standards of behaviour in both their public as well as their private life,” it said in a statement.

“The Malta Chamber is disappointed with the handling of the current crisis of standards in public life, which is allowing the country to go through another spiral of reputational damage.

"This is extremely unfair to the many politicians and private citizens who abide by high ethical standards and continue to work hard in the best interests of the country. Reputational damage hurts international business prospects and the livelihood of many. It makes a mockery of the country in international fora and reinforces poor ethical standards among upcoming generations."

Warning that the “political price of shenanigans at the highest institutions of the country” is ultimately paid by the country “multiple times over”, it called on the authorities to “step up and clean up for real”.