The Malta Community Chest Fund has refused to publish the minutes of meetings in which its board discussed the President’s suggestion to reimburse costs for the studies of his daughter-in-law’s sister.
Everybody knows what the ethical issues are and what proper ethical behaviour is
In response to a series of questions sent by Times of Malta, the spokeswoman of President George Abela said: “The President of Malta has nothing further to add to what was discussed in yesterday’s TVHemm journalistic programme.”
Dr Abela has also refused an interview with this newspaper, even though he accepted to discuss the issue on the daily evening show produced by Where’s Everybody on Monday.
Times of Malta asked the Office of the President to supply, in the spirit of full disclosure, the minutes of the meetings in which this offer was proposed, discussed and turned down.
The newspaper specified that it only required the sections of the minutes relevant to the case of Darleen Zerafa, to whom the offer was made unanimously by the board on October 4 last year.
Times of Malta also asked the Office of the President to say who was present at the meetings, both when the proposal was made and when it was turned down.
The Office of the President also refused to say when and why Ms Zerafa rejected the offer and if this happened before or after she earned a scholarship to study for free. Nor did the office say whether it helped Ms Zerafa get a scholarship and whether this had anything to do with the MCCF’s cooperation with an Italian centre on eating disorders.
Even though Ms Zerafa refused the reimbursement she was offered, the issue has sparked outrage over what is perceived as a conflict of interest, because the President was the one to put forward the idea of reimbursing the sister of his son’s wife.
Ms Zerafa was studying eating disorders in Italy and was nominated by the MCCF to help set up a centre for eating disorders in Malta, hence the offer to pay for her course.
Meanwhile, the Voluntary Organisations Commissioner, Prof. Kenneth Wain, warned about the consequences this saga could have on the voluntary sector.
“For most people, the MCCF is an organisation like Caritas and all the others. So at the end of the day, this sort of thing damages the MCCF, of course, but also the voluntary sector in general.
“If you have a very large voluntary organisation that is very trusted and this sort of thing happens, people start becoming sceptical about voluntary organisations in general so this sort of thing is bound to have an adverse effect on the sector.
“From that point of view, that concerns me,” he said.
Prof. Wain pointed out that the MCCF was not enrolled with his Commission and could not be considered to be a voluntary organisation as defined by the law because of its State involvement.
According to the law, it is not acceptable to collect money for a stated purpose and use the money for a different cause, even if it is also a good cause, he said.
In this case, the statute of the MCCF allows it to give money for scholarships related to charity work – as happened in the case of Ms Zerafa – but this is where Prof. Wain drew a distinction between what is legal and what is ethical.
“I will not go into the ethical issue regarding family members and conflicts of interest. As far as the law is concerned, that would not be an infringement but I’m not sure if the public is aware of this and whether they gave money for this purpose.”
Asked how this case would be different if MCCF were an enrolled voluntary organisation, Prof. Wain said he would not have got involved unless there was a complaint about malpractice.
“Very probably, if my attention was drawn to the matter, although I wouldn’t have acted because there was no violation of the law, I would have obviously, privately, communicated and shown a little bit of concern.
“At least in future, one would be more careful on these standard ethical issues.”
Asked whether there should be a regulator empowered to act on ethical issues, Prof. Wain said: “Everybody knows what the ethical issues are and what proper ethical behaviour is.
“I don’t think one needs to create a particular code of ethics for the MCCF or the President.”
He said there should always be good ethical practice and this must be “seen to be so”, otherwise the organisation would be harmed.