Economy Minister Chris Cardona has lost his legal attempt to stop the Data Protection Commissioner from accessing details of his consultants’ contracts and was ordered to submit all the documentation requested.

Chris Cardona (left) and his former chief of staff Mario Azzopardi.

In a decision handed down by the Information and Data Protection Appeals Tribunal, chaired by Anna Mallia, it was decided that the Data Protection Commissioner has every right to issue enforcement orders when a government ministry does not comply.

The tribunal rejected all the arguments made by Dr Cardona’s lawyer, Nadine Lia, herself a consultant at the ministry, reiterating that it is up to the Data Protection Commissioner to decide whether a contract should be published or not.

Among her objections, Dr Lia had argued that the people employed by the minister as consultants, paid by taxpayers, should not have their contracts published as their terms were “private and confidential”.

The issue goes back to over a year ago when Times of Malta had submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the contracts of the minister’s advisors after it was discovered that Dr Cardona’s former chief of staff, Mario Azzopardi, was removed from his post and instead given an advisory role.

Mr Azzopardi, had hit the headlines in 2015 when he took the blame after the discovery by the National Audit Office that during a Dubai trip, Dr Cardona’s party ran a bill of €750 worth of alcoholic beverages consumed from the hotel’s mini-bar during a three-day visit.

Following the revelations, Dr Cardona said that the bill was not his but was Mr Azzopardi’s, who was accompanying him during the ministerial trip in the United Arab Emirates. 

Following the last election, Mr Azzopardi was not reappointed as Dr Cardona’s chief of staff. 

Instead, Dr Cardona appointed his chief canvasser in Birkirkara as adviser “to monitor all works of the ministry and update Dr Cardona on a regular basis”.

The conditions tied to this new post, including the financial package, were never disclosed as Dr Cardona repeatedly refused to give details to the newspaper.

Following a request for an investigation by Times of Malta, as it argued that since Mr Azzopardi was paid through public funds, his conditions should be made public in view of transparency and good governance, the Data Protection Commissioner asked the Economy Ministry to supply the information to his office  acceto decide whether the publication of such information was necessary.

However, parting from usual procedure adopted by the government, the ministry refused to hand over the documents to the regulatory authorities and instead challenged the commissioner’s decision and his authority.

The tribunal has now turned down the ministry’s attempts to block the process. 

Apart from Mr Azzopardi, Dr Cardona also employed as his advisers, Dr Lia, Mario Borg Sillato, Alexander Farrugia and Joseph Sammut.

The contracts of all these consultants are now expected to be handed to the Data Protection Commissioner.

Ivan.Camilleri@timesofmalta.com