The COVID-19 pandemic overturned the regular functions of our society and totally disrupted our way of life. This meant major social, political and legal challenges for us to safeguard the founding values of our judicial system – access to justice and the rule of law. 

We have made considerable efforts to adjust to new circumstances within a short period of time to ensure the functioning of our long-standing judicial and repu­table system. We have undoubtedly succeeded in this with the help of all stakeholders involved.  

Our financial plan for the year 2022 is constructed upon a post-pandemic forma mentis, which further applies to our justice system. We have invested a total of €48 million in our justice system, of which €6.1 million were assigned to new projects in the justice sector (CAPEX).

This budget has invested 45 per cent more when compared to 2021 to further upgrade our judicial institutions and also prioritised the modernisation of our departments by allocating an additional budget of almost €42 million into the entities’ opera­tions (OPEX), investing a 16 per cent increase in digital technology renovation.

The Robert Abela administration has allocated a 20 per cent increase when compared to 2021 in the funding to the Court Services Agency, which amounts to a total of €21.5 million. This will give the judiciary more effective administrative support to function in an efficient manner. Furthermore, back in 2021, we drew up plans to refurbish a building next to the court and develop a space for four new chambers alongside 25 offices.

This building will be now accompanied by a new courtroom alongside the main court, which will be accommodating about 5,180 hearings per year, amounting to an increase of four per cent in hearings every year.

The offices of the state advocate and of the attorney general are crucial institutions in safeguarding our rule of law. The allocation to the attorney general is in full synchronisation with the plan established by the government, whereby the transfer of all prosecutions will become the sole responsibility of this office by 2025. This draws a clear line of demarcation between the investigative role of the executive police and the role of the attorney general as public prosecutor.

The office of the advocate of state alone has received an increase of 32 per cent in funding when compared to that granted in 2021, amounting to a total of €2.25 million to be invested in its operations (OPEX).

Furthermore, this budget has assigned an increase of 78 per cent in funding to the office of the attorney gene­ral to strengthen facilities and further equip this office with the necessary resources to address the current workload and to fight aggressively economic crime.

In our country, everyone must be held accountable- Edward Zammit Lewis

Notably, year after year, this government further strengthens Malta’s rule of law and combats corruption by working to meet the recommendations on good governance presented by the Venice Commission and GRECO. We have managed to introduce unprecedented institutional and constitutional reforms in the Maltese parliament, including the removal of the prime minister’s absolute power in the appointments of the highest positions in our country, specifically in appointing the President of Malta, the chief justice and members of the judiciary.

In our country, everyone must be held accountable.

The government invested twice as many funds as what was originally allocated in 2021 for the Permanent Commission Against Corruption in a bid to make it more efficient and a more aggressive watchdog on corruption.

The Abela administration has also pledged additional investment in the justice sector for the budget of next year (2022), specifically for the digital transformation of the sector. This allocation has increas­ed by 16 per cent when compared to 2021. Among many others one can find measures in relation to the Court Services Agency, the Notarial Archives and our legal aid system. We have also managed to tap funds to obtain this objective via the EU Recovery and Resilience Plan submitted to the European Commission. 

In the coming weeks, the Court Services Agency will launch an extensive scanning project of all criminal judicial acts that will be accessible from ‘digicourts’ to interested parties, mainly the judge/magistrate, the attorney general and the defence. We already have a Bill to pass through parliament which will provide an adequate legal framework for this to happen. This will lead to more accessibility and more efficiency of our courts of criminal competence.   

We have also invested heavily in the Asset Recovery Bureau and will start the ambitious project of a building specialised in the storage of confiscated goods. This after we promulgated a ‘state of the art’ legislation called The Proceeds of Crime Act, which came into effect last March, introducing novel concepts in our legal system to make it more equipped to fight organised crime and money laundering.

Budget 2022 will go down in the history books as the budget that truly invested in the Malta we want to pass on to our future generations.

Despite the international crisis going on in other fellow European states, the Abela administration has proved itself by successfully presented outstanding measures for everyone and every sector.

I shall remain committed, notwithstanding all the challenges and endemic problems within our justice system, to work tirelessly to safeguard the foundations of our democracy by strengthening the effectiveness of our institutions and establishing a justice system which delivers justice within a reasonable time to all our citizens.

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