Ombudsman and persons of trust

I refer to the article ‘Ombudsman rejects claim he hires persons of trust’ featured (December 9).

The story’s header contradicts the article’s content in as much as a ‘consultant’ is a ‘person of trust’. The issue is not whether the overseeing institutions have the right to employ persons of trust/consultants but on having a clear, transparent and publicly known procedure about their recruitment.

For good governance’s sake, all institutions having an oversight remit should have their own transparent and well-defined recruitment and standard operating procedures. These should be available to all.

They should include all constitutional bodies, not only the parliamentary ombudsman, but also the office of the commissioner for standards in public life, which is itself overwhelmingly staffed with persons of trust.

For the first time ever, the public service nowadays has well-defined standards and, indeed, a specific manual regarding employment procedures of persons of trust/consultants. Shouldn’t the institutional overseers also have one?

Paul Azzopardi, Director of Information – Valletta

Central Bank of Malta Directive 19 – €20 cheques

Photo: Shutterstock.com

I wish to refer to the fourth statement in the recently issued CBM Directive 19, which emphatically and authoritatively affirms that, as of January 1, “cheques below or equal to €20 cannot be issued and will be dishonoured if presented at the bank”.

I have written to the Central Bank explaining that this directive will be causing me unnecessary, unwarranted and excessive harm. Consequently, I asked to be sent a suggestion as to how I may pay an annual ground rent of €14 since I will no longer be able to post a cheque for this amount. Moreover, being a cripple, I am unable to board a bus and personally hand in the sum of money. The suggestions proposed in a CBM official’s reply are useless to me, especially the banking concepts involving direct debits and credit transfers, which confuse me and probably many senior citizens like me.

The only suggestion of which I can avail myself is to make use of Maltapost money orders instead of cheques for amounts not above €20. Obviously, being an 86-year-old citizen, I myself do not relish this advice simply because purchasing a postal order at any post office involves much more effort and is more time-consuming than merely filling a cheque and posting it.

The CBM official’s reply to me ends with this galling comment: “Furthermore, please note that CBM Directive No. 19 is a national directive in order to regulate the use of cheques and bank drafts intended to increase the security of such payment method.” As if such a relatively small, almost paltry, amount of €20 needs to have its security increased by having it scrapped.

 I am really flabbergasted. Perhaps, the CBM administration will lucidly explain how and wherefore the security of a €20 cheque increases when scrapped.

I recently read in a local newspaper that the Anti Poverty Forum Malta – which is a representative organisation of 17 local NGOs – has asked the CBM to reconsider this measure which would not allow cheques of under €20 to be processed. This €20 dogmatic diktat will be shackling numerous pensioners and families of sick persons (including COVID-19 ones) who order foodstuffs, medicines, household items, etc. online since certain objects that may be urgently needed may cost less than €20.

I am not surprised that the CBM official, who replied to my message, did not inform me which other central banks have scrapped or intend to scrap €20 cheques. I assume that I was not sent this information simply because no other central bank in the European Union – or anywhere else in the world – has issued or intends to issue a similar and rather very odd injunction which is vexatious, unnecessary and unwarranted.

I object to this directive as it will be causing considerable harm not only to senior citizens, such as me, but also to countless other Maltese citizens. It will be a deleterious blight on our European status.

Probably, the raison d’être of this directive would be better achieved if the directive were to allow such cheques to be issued and deposited in the receiver’s bank-saving account but would not be promptly cashed at the counter.

Sebastian Debono – Qormi

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