A judge yesterday ordered the Home Affairs Ministry to furnish the Ombudsman with all the documentation he needed to continue his investigation into complaints on promotions at the Armed Forces of Malta.
Mr Justice Lawrence Mintoff ruled the Ombudsman had the authority to investigate complaints by army officers.
The decision effectively settled a two-year legal wrangle between Ombudsman Joseph Said Pullicino and former home affairs minister Manuel Mallia.
Mr Justice Mintoff threw out Dr Mallia’s arguments that the law precluded the Ombudsman from investigating complaints by AFM officers before having exhausted all other avenues open to them when seeking redress.
Dr Said Pullicino, a former chief justice, had filed an application against Dr Mallia (the case was then continued by present Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela) and permanent secretary Kevin Mahoney.
The decision effectively settled a two-year legal wrangle
The dispute revolved around a number of controversial promotions handed out in September 2013, most notably that of AFM commander Jeffrey Curmi, who leapfrogged from major to brigadier – four promotions – in a matter of months.
The government argued that the Ombudsman lacked jurisdiction to hear complaints by army officers who did not resort first to the ordinary remedy granted by law.
But Dr Said Pullicino submitted that the ordinary remedy could not have reasonably been used and declared last year that the complainants could not have been expected to appeal to the President as a means of redress because that would effectively amount to a renunciation of their right to refer the case to the Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman is precluded from investigating the President’s decisions. The Ombudsman had also told the court he failed to understand why the Home Affairs Minister seemed to be refusing to cooperate in his search for the truth about army promotions and was laying obstacles in every way. Dr Mallia insisted in court that the Ombudsman had no authority to investigate complaints by commissioned officers because these had other remedies available to them if they had any complaints.
However, Mr Justice Mintoff, sitting in the First Hall of the Civil Court, threw out the arguments put forward by Dr Mallia, who had been sacked by the Prime Minister after his driver allegedly shot in the direction of a motorist who had clipped the ministerial car’s wing mirror.
The judge ruled that the Ombudsman had every right to investigate any complaints on appointments, promotions, salaries and pension rights of any AFM officers.
The court said it was up to the Ombudsman to decide whether to investigate cases where effective remedies were not available.
Mr Justice Mintoff ruled that the Ombudsman could proceed with his investigation and ordered the ministry to provide all the documentation required to carry out the investigation.