A business lobby group has called on the government to regulate lobbying, citing former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and construction magnate Joseph Portelli as examples of potentially bad practices.

In a policy document, the Chamber of Commerce said lobbying in Malta is not carried out in an appropriately transparent manner.

The chamber warned that unstructured and potentially unethical lobbying is carried out “blatantly”.

By way of example, the chamber said Muscat had “no legitimate purpose” as a then backbench MP to be present at a meeting in 2020 between Prime Minister Robert Abela and Steward Healthcare.

The chamber's new policy document sets out proposals to improve accountability and transparency.

The chamber said Muscat's presence at the meeting could only be explained if he was acting as a lobbyist on behalf of Steward, or had been engaged as the company’s consultant.

It also flagged how Portelli had “no hesitation” detailing, in a Times of Malta interview, how he frequently meets politicians to propose large-scale projects.

Lobbying register, minuted meetings

The chamber’s demands to regulate lobbying echo similar calls made by the Standards Commissioner and the public inquiry into journalist Daphne Carauna Galizia’s murder.

The government has so far ignored calls to regulate lobbying.

The chamber endorsed recommendations to establish a lobbying register in which each MP and minister logs any person or business which meets with him or her for lobbying purposes.

It also proposes that minutes of meetings with lobbyists should be uploaded to an online register within five working days of the meeting being held.

Among a raft of other proposals, the chamber calls for a more structured, consistent and coherent submission of asset information by MPs, that is easily accessible to the public.

It further proposes that a separate non-public register is maintained, detailing the assets of MPs’ family members.

David Spiteri Gingell, who chaired a committee that came up with these proposals, said details about assets owned by an MP’s family member should only be made public if a probe by the Standards Commissioner finds wrongdoing.

The chamber wants to strengthen the Commissioner’s role, while also putting the committee tasked with scrutinising bad behaviour by politicians on par with the public accounts committee.

Tough sanctions for conflicts of interest

Its policy document calls for tough sanctions on MPs who fail to declare a potential conflict of interest during legislative debates in parliament.

Backbench MPs should be precluded from taking up second jobs with the government, thus ensuring a proper separation of power between the executive and legislative branches, the chamber says.

Backbench MPs should be barred from taking on second jobs with the government, the chamber says.

Training and refresher courses on ethics should be offered to all MPs, and state financing should be given to political parties to ensure their candidates are trained in ethical behaviour.

In explaining its latest policy paper, Spiteri Gingell says in a foreword that transparency, accountability and ethical behaviour are the essential prerequisites of a democracy based on the rule of law.

Having robust frameworks in place will help prevent corruption and conflicts of interest, as well as maintain people’s trust in politics and the politicians they elect, Spiteri Gingell said.