A report detailing a “serious breach” of the Council of Europe’s rules of conduct by Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar was published by the pan-European parliamentary assembly on Friday.
The report notes how Cutajar’s resignation as an assembly member last October means the range of sanctions available to the council cannot be applied.
Cutajar was found in breach of the assembly’s rules over her failure to disclose her relationship with murder suspect Yorgen Fenech, prior to giving a speech in the assembly which touched upon corruption allegations involving his once-secret company 17 Black.
Times of Malta revealed last year how Cutajar received a €9,000 “gift” from murder suspect Yorgen Fenech, a few weeks after she flew to the Strasbourg assembly to give a speech downplaying 17 Black and other government corruption scandals.
Cutajar did not deny 'business meeting'
The report notes how Cutajar did not deny the fact she had a “business meeting” with Fenech prior to giving the speech, a reference to her involvement in brokering an Mdina property sale with the 17 Black businessman.
Cutajar argued in her submissions to the council that, at the time of her assembly speech, she could not have known Fenech “had been involved” in the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
The council’s rules committee dismissed this argument, saying it was not relevant to her failure to disclose a conflict of interest prior to her speech.
“In order to establish a violation… it is sufficient to establish that a member of the assembly did not disclose his or her professional relationship with one of the persons mentioned in the explanatory memorandum, the said person having been identified as the owner of one of the companies implicated in the draft resolution,” the committee said.
The committee said the disclosure of interests, in addition to promoting transparency among assembly members, mitigates risk that the public or their colleagues may view some of their actions as biased.
This is why rules governing conflicts of interest had been introduced in 2012 and remained unchanged since, the committee said.
Given that the range of sanctions available for the “serious” breach cannot be applied as Cutajar had resigned from the assembly, the committee said “further consideration” should be given to the impact that such findings have on ex-members, including in the event that he or she re-joins the assembly at a later date.
Cutajar resigned from cabinet in February 2021 over her alleged role in an Mdina property deal with Fenech.
A probe by standards commissioner George Hyzler found Cutajar had breached the Maltese parliament’s ethics standards over her failure to declare income from the deal.
Cutajar was "reprimanded" by Malta’s ethics committee over the finding in the Hyzler report.