The Prime Minister should order the Home Affairs Minister to cooperate with the Ombudsman’s investigation into alleged army abuse that occurred under his watch, the Opposition said in a motion presented to the Speaker yesterday.
Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi said a seven-month delay in the provision of information to assist the Ombudsman’s investigation into complaints by army officers was unprecedented.
He said it was unacceptable that the Ombudsman was being hindered from investigating possible injustices in a country that calls itself democratic and European.
The Ombudsman’s office and the government are on a collision course over which entity has the jurisdiction to look into complaints filed by army officers, with both sides expressing diametrically opposed views.
The controversy was triggered during a House Business Committee in March which debated a request, filed by Dr Azzopardi, for the Ombudsman to probe the methodology used by an army complaints board created last year.
The Ombudsman has filed a judicial protest, saying the Armed Forces of Malta was withholding information from him, which hindered his investigations.
A counter protest was then filed by the Home Affairs Ministry.
The public’s right to good public administration was being hindered
In the motion presented by the Opposition to Speaker Anġlu Farrugia, the PN called for an imminent debate on the matter in the House Business Committee after the Speaker turned down a request by the Opposition on Monday for the House to be adjourned to discuss the matter.
The Speaker said in Parliament that while the issue was in the public interest, it was not urgent and referred the debate to the House Business Committee first.
PN deputy leader Mario de Marco called for the debate to take place as soon as possible: “We depend on the strength of debate for a solution to be found and we are calling for this to happen in the House Business Committee as soon as possible.”
He referred to former European Court judge Giovanni Bonello, who defined the case as “a matter of constitutional crisis”.
The PN accused Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia of undermining an institution protected by the Constitution and showing he did not want to submit himself to the scrutiny of an office that is independent from government. Without such scrutiny, the public’s right to good public administration was being hindered.
Dr Azzopardi said such a conflict between State entities was also unprecedented and described it as a “grave situation”. He said that checks and balances were important in a democratic country and could not be ignored.
“Trust must be based on actions, not words,” Dr Azzopardi said.
The Speaker thanked the Opposition for following procedure and agreed such conflict must be resolved.
Ombudsman Joseph Said Pullicino, a former chief justice, has consistently argued that his office is empowered by law to look into complaints by AFM officers in respect of appointments, promotions, pay and pension rights, as a result of an agreement reached under the previous administration.
Dr Mallia has argued in the counter protest filed that the Ombudsman has no authority to investigate AFM complaints unless he is satisfied that all other avenues to seek redress have been exhausted.