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.
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 clause 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 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 clause 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”.
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