Justice Minister Owen Bonnici says the government is committed to improve the commission.

The Permanent Commission Against Corruption has been in a state of limbo for six months, as the government is still pondering a proposal about an alternative set up as part of its judicial review.

Last Tuesday, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici confirmed that the five-year term of the members on the commission expired on November 16. However, nobody has been appointed in their place.

He added the government was committed to improve this body in line with the suggestions made last year by the Justice Reform Commission. Contacted by The Sunday Times of Malta, Dr Bonnici said the commission was “an important tool” and a decision would be taken “shortly”. He declined to give further details.

In its final report submitted on November 30, the JRC was quite critical about the effectiveness of this body intended to investigate corruption claims. One of the most radical proposals put forward by the JRC was the creation of a prosecutor general which would replace inquiring magistrates.

The JRC argued that once the office of the prosecutor general would have the authority to investigate corruption claims, there would be no need to have a commission .

The report had also noted that since its creation in 1988, the commission had very little success in its mission. It remarked that none of the 425 probes opened by the commission had led to any charges. As a result the JRC said that the prosecutor general would be better suited to perform the duties currently assigned to the commission against corruption as it would also have an investigative arm which the commission lacked.

A former member of the commission, who asked to remain anonymous, welcomed the proposal to place the commission under the prosecutor general, but he questioned the decision of having no members sitting on it when no alternative setup was in place.

By the time they take action, the person would probably have been alerted

He said the commission’s biggest drawback was that it lacked the necessary resources to investigate, adding that the chairman and two members, all of whom were on part-time, could only rely on the services of two secretaries. Another shortcoming was people tended to go directly to the police when they wanted to flag some irregularity, he said.

“Our obligation was to look into the claims and determine whether there was prima facie evidence of corruption and stop there. In that case we would present a report to the minister who would have the final say.

“Under the present set up we could ask for the police to intervene, but by the time they take action, the person would probably have been alerted and so the entire exercise would be pointless.”

He said that unless the commission was vested with powers similar to the police, its effectiveness would be limited.