The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life Joseph Azzopardi has said that there is no basis to revise the conclusion his Office had given on a case regarding Energy Minister Miriam Dalli, after the PN asked the Commissioner to correct and revise the report which found Dalli in violation of ethics.
PN MP Karol Aquilina was the one who asked for the revision of the report by the Commissioner’s Office, saying that it was wrong for the Commissioner to close the case with a simple apology from Dalli based on the argument that Dalli was not Minister when a prior report on the same abuse was published by former Commissioner George Hyzler on other Ministers.
Aquilina said that Dalli was appointed Minister on 23 November 2020, while the earlier report referred to by the Commissioner was published in January 2021. Dalli was already a Minister when the report referred to by the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life was published, he argued. He also asked the Commissioner to forward the corrected report on Dalli to the Parliamentary Committee on Standards so that action may be taken on it according to the Standards in Public Life Act.
Commissioner Azzopardi said that the case was closed for two reasons: He said that Dalli was not yet Minister on 1 November 2020, when Commissioner Hyzler received the complaint, but she was indeed Minister on 25 January 2021, when Commissioner Hyzler issued his report on the case.
The second reason given by the Commissioner as to why Dalli’s case was closed under Article 22(5) of the Act, was that the time passed since the decision of the previous case remains valid.
“There is no basis to revise the conclusion of case K/058 and to refer it to the Committee on Standards,” Azzopardi said.
The report said that Dalli’s case affirms the principle that official statements issued by government should not include partisan comments. Azzopardi said that the way the case was closed does not affect this fact, but rather that through the strength of Article 22(5) of the Act, the case was able be concluded in a quicker and more definitive manner. This article should not be easily discarded in a case where the Act permits its application, the Commissioner said.
The Speaker of the House Anglu Farrugia was sent a copy of the letter.
PN slams decision
The Nationalist Party has slammed the Standard Commissioner’s decision.
“Despite that, after we brought it to his attention, he had to admit that he made a serious error in the report he made about Minister Miriam Dalli, the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life refused to review the way he closed the case; that is, with a simple apology from Minister Miriam Dalli,” a PN statement signed by the party’s Shadow Minister for Justice Karol Aquilina, read.
“The Nationalist Party reminds that, in the same report, Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi found Minister Miriam Dalli guilty of violating articles 4.9, 4.10, and 7.4 of the Code of Ethics for Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries. With Thursday’s decision, the Commissioner is protecting Minister Miriam Dalli from the consequences that should result from the report he himself wrote,” the PN statement read.
“With this behaviour, the Commissioner is rendering himself part of the system of impunity and disregard that in recent years has brought our country to its knees.”
“Therefore, it is now clear to everyone how right the Nationalist Party’s Parliamentary Group was to vote against the appointment of former Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi as Commissioner for Standards in Public Life,” the PN said.
“The result of this bad decision that was taken by Prime Minister Robert Abela are evident to all: today the Office of the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life has become another institution that does not function in the public interest. Our country needs and deserves a Commissioner for Standards in Public Life who demands that the Prime Minister, Ministers, and Parliamentary Secretaries take responsibility for the abuses they commit, and not someone who seeks to let them off easily,” the statement concluded.
