“Prof. Cassar either read the introduction and still wrote the piece to suit a spin – that’s not on; or else wrote the article without even bothering to read Mr Cutajar’s contribution – that’s entirely not on.”
This was not the usual hostile post by one of many Labour trolls. This was an official Department of Information statement issued on behalf of the Principal Permanent Secretary, Mario Cutajar, as a right of reply.
Cutajar, the prickly and uncivil head of the civil service, had taken offence. In an article published recently, I pointed out that Cutajar had lashed out at the ombudsman, quoting him directly. “The Ombudsman criticises us every year,” Mario Cutajar accused, “but he should be clearer about his own standards on persons of trust.”
Cutajar could not dispute that he had uttered those words. Nor could he deny that he cynically commented that there should be a “procedure” to establish if the ombudsman himself could hire people on a position of trust basis. Cutajar had even implied that the ombudsman’s office was partisan and mocked the slow rate of the ombudsman’s work.
Yet, in his right of reply, Cutajar insisted that “it is not true that he lashed out at the ombudsman”.
His statement is a damning indictment of the sheer amateurism, the level of mediocrity and the utter lack of professionalism of the civil service head. His statement is barely readable. The language is atrocious, littered with grammatical and basic syntax errors that would make an elementary school student blush. It is written in the hostile and offensive tone of a Super One propaganda item. It stinks of sheer laziness, with no attempt to even run it through a grammar check, let alone a half decent proofreader. It is a monumental embarrassment to the government and a shameful insult to the nation.
But this was a Department of Information statement. “It is simply obvious that Prof. Cassar missed the wood for the trees on what was written by Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar in his introduction to the publication ‘Governance Action on the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s Annual Report 2020’,” the statement kicked off. My article had nothing to do with the publication.
Cutajar’s DOI statement deteriorated further, pretty rapidly after that. “This is because in no way the Principal Permanent Secretary lashed out at ombudsman for doing his duty,” it bungled on, “On the contrary, truth is that public administration put forward a number of proposals for further strengthening the parliamentary institutions.”
And to ensure the language was completely massacred, the statement triumphantly and hilariously concluded “How can that be termed as lashing out, one cannot really fathom.”
The butchering of the language was the least of Cutajar’s violations. Here was the head of the civil service abusing the Department of Information to personally denigrate and denounce an opinion writer for reporting Cutajar’s inappropriate undemocratic indiscretions.
In August 2019, a copy of the commissioner for standards’ report about abusive and partisan DOI statements and how these must be avoided was sent to Cutajar himself, “in order to avoid similar breaches”. Point 42 of that report read: “There exists enough space in the media, especially social media, for expressing oneself in the most provocative of tones. The DOI should not be drawn into that space. DOI statements should be as factual, non-partisan and authoritative as possible.”
Mario Cutajar, the prickly and uncivil head of the civil service, had taken offence- Kevin Cassar
Cutajar’s statement was none of these. There was certainly nothing factual about it. It only carried insolent suppositions intended to assign malicious intent and voice subjective opinion such as the farcical “that’s entirely not on”. It was a flagrant attempt to intimidate and silence critics by personally targeting one individual and using the full force of officialdom to harass and create a chilling effect.
By doing so, the head of the civil service was in breach of the recommendations issued by the standards commissioner relating to DOI statements. Point 49 of the commissioner’s report warned: “I shall be monitoring the publication of press statements through the DOI to ensure that the tone and content respect the principles established above.”
But Cutajar cannot be investigated by the commissioner as he is neither an MP nor a person of trust, which allows him to abuse the DOI at will.
What is even more galling is that the central point of Cutajar’s statement, that he had not lashed out at the ombudsman, is untrue. That is why Cutajar resorted to vagueness and hostility – the truth hurts.
It wasn’t just one columnist who concluded that Cutajar had attacked the ombudsman. The Times of Malta reported that “Civil service head fires barb at Ombudsman on persons of trust” on December 7, 2021. On January 13, 2022, Newsbook reported that “The Principal Permanent Secretary, Mario Cutajar has hit out at Ombudsman Anthony Mifsud”. The Shift reported that “Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar upped his attack against the Ombudsman”.
More telling, the ombudsman himself accused Cutajar of undermining his office and that his comments were “an attack on the institution”.
The ombudsman wrote to the Speaker stating that the civil service head failed to understand the role of the Office of the Ombudsman and that Cutajar was attempting to discredit the institution.
The ombudsman regretted that these attacks came from the head of the public service whose duty it was to safeguard constitutional institutions and good governance.
The ombudsman uncomfortably pointed out that Cutajar must understand that the ombudsman’s office was not an extension of the public administration and did not fall under Cutajar’s scrutiny.
It is deeply disturbing to witness the head of the civil service having to be publicly lectured about the basics of democracy by the ombudsman. It is even more disconcerting to watch the public service head degrade himself and his office with petulant outbursts and unseemly drivel.
He is left with egg on his face and the nation is left mortified.