Speaker Anglu Farrugia abstained from casting a deciding vote during a parliamentary committee meeting on Wednesday, in an unprecedented move that stalled the adoption of a report which found minister Carmelo Abela in breach of ethical standards.
The report, by Standards Commissioner George Hyzler, looked into Abela's use of public funds to run a series of advertisements in local print media, costing €7,012.98.
Hyzler found that the messages within the ads, featuring Abela’s photograph, could not be considered to be informative or of interest to the public to merit being paid for through public funds.
Last week Hyzler answered questions from the Standards in Public Life Committee about his report. Today the committee was meant to decide on whether to adopt his report and take on his recommendations or reject it and declare the matter closed.
Government representatives Edward Zammit Lewis and Glenn Bedingfield argued that the report should not be adopted because the conclusions were based on the Commissioner’s subjective opinions and that there were no clear guidelines regulating such a situation.
They insisted that clear guidelines establishing such principles should be drafted going forward.
Opposition members Therese Comodini Cachia and Beppe Fenech Adami said that, barring any glaring mistakes, the report should be adopted as the code of ethics was clear in establishing certain principles, namely that public funds should not have been used to run the adverts.
They added that even if Abela did not know he was in breach of ethics when he had commissioned the ads, he was now more than aware and should refund the money.
Since the vote was tied, Farrugia, who chairs the committee, was given a deciding vote.
He suspended the meeting for an hour before returning with his decision to abstain, something that is understood to be a first within the committee.
Reports require a majority of at least three votes to be adopted, and since the abstention granted neither a vote in favour nor against, the complaint has effectively exhausted all discussion and remains at an impasse.
Farrugia said that while he agreed with certain conclusions reached by the report, namely that Abela’s photograph was too prominent and that guidelines on adverts should be drafted going forward, he did not feel there was a breach of ethical guidelines and thus decided to abstain from voting.
In response, the Opposition members said the discussion should not be considered exhausted, considering the tied vote.
The actions of the government MPs have shown that the procedure is being used to attack an independent and impartial entity which is an important institution in terms of democratic governance, they added.