Joseph Muscat will face no punishment for committing a serious ethical breach by accepting expensive gifts from businessman Yorgen Fenech, who is accused of conspiring to murder journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
The Parliamentary Committee for Standards in Public Life instead agreed that a letter the former prime minister had sent to it should be treated as a form of apology.
In the letter, Muscat was replying to the committee’s request to make his submission in person during the meeting, prior to a final decision. The former prime minister declined to attend saying he had nothing to add to the reaction given when the report had been published last month.
What is the case about?
The case goes back to February last year when Muscat had thrown a private party at his official summer residence in Girgenti, limits of Siġġiewi.
Last December it transpired that Fenech had donated Muscat three bottles of Pétrus – a premier Bordeaux red wine – costing about €5,800 in all.
Independent candidate Arnold Cassola had asked Commissioner for Standards in Public Life George Hyzler to look into the matter.
The commissioner concluded that Muscat had breached the ministerial code of ethics by accepting such an expensive gift from a businessmen with close commercial relationships with the government.
Fenech was one of the directors in the company commissioned by the government to construct a new gas-fired power plant.
In line with the law, the case was referred to the Parliamentary Committee for Standards to decide on what course of action to take. Though last month the committee had endorsed the findings it had agreed to seek Muscat’s reaction prior to coming to a decision.
I have nothing further to add - Muscat
The former prime minister declined the invite to turn up for the meeting. He noted that even the Standards Commissioner himself was not able to come up with a proposal for what form of sanction he would recommend.
“Given the commissioner did not make any further pronouncement, I feel I have nothing to add to the public statement issued following the publication of the report,” Muscat said in his letter to Speaker Anglu Farrugia.
The former prime minister was referring to a Facebook post uploaded on July 3 in which he had criticised the report which he said was partly based on perceptions.
No action would set 'a precedent'
During the meeting, Opposition MPs Karol Aquilina and Carm Mifsud Bonnici said they were not after the proverbial pound of flesh, but at the same time said that failing to take any action at all would set a “precedent”.
They insisted that taking no action would convey a message that politicians were above the law, even when guilty of ethical breaches.
Aquilina suggested that Muscat should make a formal apology during a plenary session, or else be given a symbolic one-week suspension from parliament.
“The minimum would be to apologise and the case would be closed,” Mifsud Bonnici added.
Justice minister opposes 'public lynching'
However, Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis and Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri opposed taking further action. They insisted Muscat had subsequently resigned, though not in connection with the case, and the gifts returned to the state.
“We should not indulge in public lynching,” Zammit Lewis remarked.
“The fact that this committee had endorsed the commissioner’s findings is already a symbolic gesture in itself that matters are not being taken lightly,” he added.
Following a lengthy debate, the four members agreed to a motion moved by the Speaker who presides the committee.
It said that after discussing the contents of Muscat’s letter and while understanding that the former prime minister had a right to his position, it understood that such correspondence constituted a "form of apology" in line with the provisions of the Standards in Public Life Act.
The committee also agreed that in the next sitting it would invite the Standards Commissioner to make a presentation on the proposed revision of the Ministerial Code of Ethics, issued in the wake of this case.