The late Patrick Staines

With the demise of Patrick Staines, Malta lost an exemplary civil servant who contributed a lot towards upholding and maintaining the traditional values inherited from the past. Staines was also a scholar and a historian.

I first knew Staines as lecturer of public administration in the Malta University course leading to the Diploma in Public Administration 1959-1962. He complemented other scholarly teachers of the same course, including the late professor judge Wallace Gulia, professor Renato Cirillo, professor chief justice J. J. Cremona and the economist Maurice Abela. I have been fortunate to have learnt from them.

Staines inculcated in his students a love for Maltese history. I was also   fortunate to have formed part of the civil service during his time.

Staines made a valid contribution to Maltese history, particularly in the study of Maltese government administration during the early period of British rule.

As member of the Malta Historical Society, I followed with interest his writings based on intensive research in Malta and in the UK.

May I express condolences to his family. 

Emanuel Cilia Debono – Mosta

The Office of the Ombudsman

Reference is made to the editorial penned on November 21, whereby the attention currently given by the public service towards the Office of the Ombudsman has been belittled. The editorial portrays a government and its administrative arm that are ignoring the Ombudsman – this is not the case. It also quoted the Ombudsman as slamming the administration for lack of respect and understanding.

The trend prior to 2013, where reports by authorities such as the Ombudsman were not duly noted, has been firmly reversed. In fact, one of the first steps that was undertaken was to create a structure within the public service where each and every complaint by entities like the Ombudsman is handled and investigated. 

For routine transparency’s sake, the third governance action report, on the back of previous ones, is to be published next week and can be eventually found at: https://publicservice.gov.mt/en/Pages/Media/Publications.aspx.   

Most cases presented to the Ombudsman and referred to the public administration arrive at an amicable resolution. An extract of statistics for the 381 cases investigated in 2019, as at September 2020, evidences this.

Altogether, 98 per cent of all closed cases (247 from 253 cases closed by September 2020) were concluded with the complaint either being deemed unjustified or otherwise being suitably addressed.

This is a remarkable figure as well as testimony to the seriousness with which the public administration evaluates recommendations that are presented to it.

The follow-up exercise just concluded by the public administration on the 2019 report lacks any cases where the Ombudsman claims that information was withheld by the public administration  and the set-up within ministries established last year is ensuring full support, and collaboration, with the Office of the Ombudsman. 

The overall statistics and time span of pending cases also completely nullifies any claim that public administration ignores the Ombudsman or is dragging its feet, since the majority of the cases, around 80 per cent, are pending at the Ombudsman and his commissioners. Further details are found on the public service website listed above.

Finally, the editorial says that the Ombudsman can only make recommendations but is not empowered to take or order remedial action to be taken. 

One should heed the Ombudsman’s own pronouncements on how “[m]aking his recommendations enforceable would… radically change the nature of the institution … [and] considerably reduce the effectiveness of his office as a valid instrument to help improve the public administration and act as mediator between the latter and the citizen” (On the strengthening of the Ombudsman Institution – A proposal of the Parliamentary Ombudsman” – January 2014).

Given that the implementation figures speak for themselves and are not contested, one finds this unjustified criticism strange. Never in the last years has the Ombudsman been taken so seriously by the public administration.

Paul Azzopardi – Director of Information, Valletta

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