Updated 3:40pm with comments from Repubblika
A probe into Prime Minister Robert Abela potentially abusing his power by discussing Bernard Grech’s tax affairs with the commissioner of the Inland Revenue Department has resulted inconclusive.
Standards Commissioner George Hyzler said he could not determine whether or not Abela had breached parliamentary ethics, as both Abela and former IRD Commissioner Marvin Gaerty had chosen not to answer his questions.
Hyzler was probing the matter at the request of independent candidate Arnold Cassola, who filed the application in December 2020 following two Times of Malta reports.
Times of Malta had reported that police were hoping to unlock Gaerty’s phone which included, among other things, a discussion between himself and Abela about PN leader Bernard Grech’s tax affairs.
Abela told journalists that he had been told that Grech was not paying his taxes and had passed that information over to Gaerty.
But the prime minister declined to confirm that statement in writing with Hyzler as part of the commissioner’s ethics probe. Instead, he wrote Hyzler a brief letter in which he argued that “if Cassola is convinced that I am at fault, then he should identify the fault and substantiate it.”
That line of reasoning drew criticism from the Commissioner, who noted that his office was empowered to begin its own investigations and that any person could ask for a probe.
Hyzler’s probe ran into a further dead end when he tried to quiz Gaerty. The former IRD commissioner showed up with a lawyer and declined to answer questions for fear of self-incrimination.
Times of Malta told the Commissioner it was unable to provide him with any more information than that published in its articles.
Unable to get to the bottom of the matter, Hyzler’s probe was eventually filed as inconclusive.
While it was clear that Abela and Gaerty had corresponded, he said, he could not determine whether or not parliamentary ethics had been breached in this case as communication in itself was not evidence of a breach.
The report was published on September 30.
Abela should resign - Repubblika
In a statement rule of law NGO Repubblika said that the Prime Minister's refusal to answer questions put to him in a parliamentary investigation were a slap in the face to democracy.
As a consequence, he should resign, the NGO said.
"If the Prime Minister is not in a position to guarantee that he has never interfered in individual tax cases and that he has never abused his power for his personal or partisan advantage, he should not be Prime Minister," the NGO stated.
Repubblika pointed out that Abela's decision to exercise his right not to answer questions he feared could incriminate him meant that one could not draw legal conclusions about what happened.
The public however, could draw a clear political conclusion from this, the NGO wrote.
"The Prime Minister is not in a position to deny a very serious allegation of abuse of power, violation of the privacy law, and an anti-democratic act of abusing his authority for personal or partisan advantage," Repubblika stated.
The NGO added that this blatant disregard of the rule of law made them especially concerned that a Commissioner had not yet been appointed to replace George Hyzler.
"While the position was occupied we had someone who was documenting how low the standards were in Maltese public life. The only way we can get worse than that is to not have anyone doing the job of trying to investigate the unethical behavior of politicians," the NGO said.