The Nationalist Party has shot down a proposal by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to allow the appointment of technocrats to Cabinet.
Dr Muscat expressed the desire to allow technocratic appointments in a book about the Maltese Constitution by David Attard launched this week.
The Constitution only allows for Cabinet appointees to be elected MPs and the PN’s consent would be required to change that.
A PN spokesman said appointing technocrats to Cabinet would only “exacerbate” ministers’ lack of accountability to the electorate.
In 2011, a leaked US Embassy cable showed that former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi had lamented about the “limited talent pool” he had from which to choose Cabinet ministers.
The spokesman said the PN discussed the matter “at length” internally before the adoption of its good governance document last December and then decided against it as it weakened democratic accountability.
The PN has been highly critical of the government’s lack of accountability and has called for the resignation of Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi and the government’s most powerful unelected official, Keith Schembri, for setting up a secretive trust structure in New Zealand with companies in Panama.
The fact that, in our system, ministers need to be elected MPs compels them to keep their feet on the ground
“The fact that, in our system, ministers need to be elected MPs compels them to keep their feet on the ground and to stay in touch with their electorate. This is, in itself, a guarantee for accountability.
“To be sure, ministers tend to be accused of becoming disconnected even when they are elected MPs. But allowing unelected ministers would only exacerbate this problem because technocrats would feel less need to be accountable to the electorate because they are only answerable to the person who appointed them,” the PN spokesman said.
The PN says the argument that technocrats are more competent than MPs cannot be generalised.
The party appointed a specialised commission for the selection of candidates to ensure their competence, the spokesman said.
“It must also be stressed that technocrat ministers are normally found in presidential system where the elected President appoints his own Cabinet. But ours is a parliamentary democracy where the Prime Minister is the first among equals but remains nonetheless an equal with other ministers who are themselves elected representatives in their own right.
“Our parliamentary system has served us well and we do not envisage a shift to a different system,” the spokesman said.
He said the party had its own past experiences with lack of ministerial accountability. “On its part, the PN has learnt at its own expense that ministers should be more, not less, accountable to the people. Requiring them to pass the electoral test is the best way to ensure that,” he said.
jacob.borg@timesofmalta.com