I refer to the item (February 2) concerning the report by the Permanent Commission Against Corruption regarding the case of Jimmy Magro and, in particular, to the concluding remarks by Justice Minister Owen Bonnici.

Referring to the previous commission, headed by me as chairman, the minister is said to have stated that the last report “published” by the previous commission was in 2008 and that 11 investigations were found to be pending after the 2013 election.

I would point out that when the previous commission took office in December 1998 it was faced with a backlog of 117 cases. During its tenure of office, the previous commission carried out 227 investigations.

When, as a result of the investigation there was nothing to report, the commission would conclude its investigation without a report but would write a minute in the file stating the reasons for its decision. In other cases, the commission would send a report to the Minister of Justice in terms of article 11 of the Permanent Commission Against Corruption Act (Cap 326). Of the former investigations there were 171 cases and of the latter there were 56 cases. The last report sent by the previous commission was in November 2013.

In terms of law, the commission does not publish its reports but sends them to the Minister of Justice.