Malta’s green party has hit out at the proposed amendments to the Standards in Public Life Act saying they will make it easier for the Government to avoid being faced with ‘uncomfortable’ reports published by the standards’ office.
Addressing a press conference on Saturday, ADPD Public Relations Officer Brian Decelis referred to the mechanism Government is proposing to enable it to appoint whoever it deems fit as Commissioner for Standards in Public Life without seeking a wide consensus.
“This may lead the appointed person to feel at ease to choose not to investigate breaches of such standards or not to investigate in detail,” Decelis explained.
“This is a slap in the face of all institutions,” he concluded.
ADPD Chairman Carmel Cacopardo said the proposed amendments to the Standards in Public Life Act were presented as an anti-deadlock mechanism when the required two-thirds of Parliamentary approval is not met.
However, the proposals are seeking to remove the primary objective of the current law, that of seeking the widest consensus possible for the appointment of the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life by Parliament, he said.
Decelis pointed out that the myopic vision of the political parties currently represented in Parliament was leading to institutions not being able to function well and “being effectively castrated.”
Only recently the Ombudsman had complained that 35 reports presented for Parliament’s attention between 2020 and last year had been completely ignored by Parliament.
These reports are presented to Parliament after being previously referred to the Office of the Prime Minister which either refused to take the necessary action, and also after being ignored by the Civil Service or the entity involved, Decelis said.
He added that “we should all be concerned by what the Ombudsman declared when faced with this lack of action.”
In comments to Times of Malta the Ombudsman said that this state of affairs showed the members of parliament’s failure to appreciate his role and that through their inaction, citizens are feeling more aggrieved by being ignored also by Parliament.
ADPD Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said that even where there had been consensus regarding appointments of Ombudsmen in the past, their reports and recommendations many a time were either ignored or quietly forgotten about.
He said it has only been thanks to public opinion that resignations such as that of the Minister for Gozo Justyne Caruana and Parliamentary Secretary Rosianne Cutajar took place, in spite of clear reports about them.
“We are also currently seeing this happen with respect to Interior Minister Byron Camilleri where the Prime Minister failed to take the immediate action to remove him for failing to take timely action to dismiss the Director of Prisons,” he added.