Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Transport Minister Austin Gatt are satisfied with the method adopted by Joe Fenech Conti to avoid a conflict of interest in his public and private functions.
Mr Fenech Conti is chairman of the Roads Network Ltd, the government company that gives the green light for the installation of speed cameras. He is also the CEO of Datatrak Holdings, a private IT company that has a cut from the fines collected by speed cameras.
Applications for speed cameras will, henceforth, be reviewed by a board on which he does not sit.
After Mr Fenech Conti had admitted publicly he was uncomfortable with the original situation, the Prime Minister had said he would not accept a situation in which a person in public office had a conflict of interest. He is now satisfied that Mr Fenech Conti had limited the possibility of conflict of interest with the measure taken.
The Office of the Prime Minister said it was informed that "Mr Fenech Conti has declared the potential conflict and excluded himself from any future decision-making on the subject (of speed cameras)".
Road Network Ltd is responsible for the granting of permits for the installation of speed cameras after the necessary studies are carried out. However, it does not procure, select or propose the location of the cameras.
Mr Fenech Conti said all decisions relating to existing speed cameras, including the eight new ones installed recently, were taken before Road Network Ltd took over responsibility for this sector. His position as chairman might be in conflict with his role as CEO of Datatrak, which supplied back-office processing for decriminalised offences, including speed camera fines, he said.
But to ensure transparency, and in conformity with strict guidelines he has been given by the Transport Ministry on how to manage potential conflicts of interest, "any future applications on speed cameras will be reviewed by a board led by the company's deputy chairman and which, obviously, excludes me altogether. I, therefore, consider my position at RNL as entirely in order".
When questioned on the matter, Dr Gatt said: "A conflict of interest in and of itself does not preclude someone from serving in public office as long as that conflict is clearly declared and that the person having that conflict does not allow interests outside the public office he is appointed to function in the interests of that office.
"I am informed by Mr Fenech Conti that he has declared this potential conflict and excluded himself from any future decision-making on the subject. Chairmen, directors and CEOs of entities in my portfolio have been given explicit guidelines on how to manage conflicts of interest. I am not informed that Joe Fenech Conti is in any way in breach of those guidelines."
Dr Gatt added that the conflict of interest case stemmed from "the antipathy in which speed cameras are held".
"The implied suggestion is that there should be no speed cameras because of the full-time job of the non-executive chairman of Road Network Ltd."