Speaker Anġlu Farrugia has rejected criticism by an international anti-corruption watchdog which said a Bill aimed to tighten controls over MPs’ declaration of assets was not bold enough.

In a report published last week, the Group of States against Corruption (Greco) within the Council of Europe, expressed concern that the proposed law would still fall short in cases where MPs made false statements, filed them late or did not submit them at all.

The Standards in Public Life Bill was unveiled in May last year by Dr Farrugia who had chaired a select committee, set up in October 2013 by unanimous consent of the House. Its remit was to come up with recommendations on how to introduce more checks and balances for MPs and government employees in a position of trust.

Dr Farrugia said he had expressed disagreement with some of the conclusions during an evaluation meeting at the Greco headquarters in Strasbourg.

He noted the main issue raised by Greco was in fact addressed by article 13 of the Bill, which said the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life would have the function “to examine and, if necessary, verify such declarations relating to income or assets or other interest or benefits of whatever nature of persons to whom this Act applies”.

He had expressed disagreement with some of the conclusions

He added that the Bill stated specifically that the Commissioner would be completely autonomous to refer his findings to the police or the Permanent Commission against Corruption in cases where there was prima facie evidence of a criminal offence or corrupt practice.

Dr Farrugia said that article 28 provided further sanctions that could be applied by the Standing Committee in case of a breach of the MPs’ code of ethics. These ranged from a simple admonishment to recommending the House to take “any other measure it may deem fit”.

With regard to gifts, Dr Farrugia argued that the fact that the code of ethics, to date, did not give a proper definition implied that “no member can receive any form of gift, irrespective of the nature of the gift, and this to eliminate what might possibly be deemed as a form of an obligation, real or imagined”.

A government spokesman told this newspaper the points raised by Greco could be debated “maturely” to further improve the system, which, he said, “offered a degree of scrutiny for many years”.

He added that Greco reports were, in their very own nature, “critical in a constructive manner” not only with respect to Malta but also to practically all participating states.

Even when not possible to adopt all recommendations fully or immediately, such reports would help to give a snapshot of the country’s legislation in a particular field, the spokesman said.

On the other hand, an Opposition spokesman said it was quite ironic that the report was issued days after the Labour government published its new ministerial code of ethics, which he said “dilutes the ministers’ obligations and responsibilities”.

These have been lowered to the point that ministers could work part-time and are not obliged to declare their partners’ assets, the spokesman pointed out.

While backing measures to increase supervision and enforcement, the Opposition said that, by the end of the year, it would unveil measures to raise the standards of public officials. These would be implemented from day one of a PN government, the spokesman said.

Greco’s comments

• No system in place to review MPs’ declaration of assets except public and media scrutiny.

• No requirement to declare items as liabilities, gifts and honoraria.

• No penalties for late filing, failure to file or false filing in the MPs’ code of ethics.

• An MP (unnamed) had failed to file the asset return for four consecutive years and there were some other cases when forms were even filed in blank.

• The lack of supervision and enforcement represents important lacunae in any programme for the prevention of corruption and for the promotion of public trust.

• While containing provisions on supervision and enforcement, a draft Bill on the Setting up of the Office of Commissioner and a Standing Committee on Standards in Public Life presented last year does not amend any other aspect of the current system of declaration.

• The draft Bill partially meets these concerns but falls short in areas like failure to file, late filing or making false statements on a financial/activity declaration.

• Measures need to be in place to ensure appropriate supervision and enforcement of the rules on the declaration of assets, financial interests and outside activities.

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