Courtesy translation:
27 January 2025
The Prime Minister
Auberge de Castille
Valletta
Prime Minister,
RE: STOP MISLEADING ON THE INCOME AND ASSET DECLARATIONS OF MINISTERS AND PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARIES
I am writing to you because a letter to the Cabinet Secretary of 23 January 2025 and a reminder of 25 January have still not been answered.
We understand from the Speaker’s ruling of 22 January 2025 that you and your colleagues have decided to discontinue the practice of providing Parliament with a copy of the declarations of assets and interests that you make in accordance with Article 7.3 of the Second Schedule to the Standards in Public Life Act (Cap. 570).
Article 4.4 of the same Schedule obliges you and your colleagues to be “as open as possible (…) in providing information to Parliament and the public at large.” Article 5.6 obliges you and your colleagues to “as public officials (you shall) be inspired in your conduct, actions and decisions (by) the value (…) of Transparency.”
It is therefore clear that if a decision has been taken to keep your declarations of assets and interests secret, you are doing so in breach of the Code of Ethics, obedience to which is a legal obligation that you have.
We then refer to remarks that you made on 26 January 2025 where you said that you are thinking of removing the specific declarations that you ministers make and instead increasing the obligations of declarations of members of parliament, and then, as members, ministers make declarations like the others. There is no other way to describe your words than to call them blatant fraud.
Regarding this we say:
We have no objection if the transparency requirements for all MPs are increased.
In Malta, the work of MPs is part-time and they are expected to have a job or other economic activity. We do not agree with this, and we have repeatedly said that MPs should be full-time. But as long as they are part-time their private interests are theirs and theirs alone. This is in contrast to ministers who, as stated in the code of ethics that binds them (Article 7.2), cannot have any economic activity other than their official position. That is why it is entirely logical that the declarations of ministers about their interests be different from those of MPs, at least as long as MPs who are not ministers remain part-timers.
Government ministers have responsibilities for the management of public funds and opportunities for corruption on a scale that cannot be compared in any way with the very limited powers of non-government MPs. It is entirely proportionate that the transparency of government ministers reflects the potential for corruption that is naturally much greater in government.
The fact that you are contemplating a reform of asset declarations (to improve transparency, in your view) does not mean that you should dilute the level of transparency that exists today. You should leave the old system of declarations in place while you consult on how to improve it.
Ministers’ asset and interest declarations are an indispensable tool for journalists, researchers, and other members of civil society who are fulfilling their democratic duty to monitor the behavior of the people who are trusted with temporary political power.
When a government reduces transparency it sends the inevitable signal that it has something to hide. It is wrong to unilaterally make decisions that make your government more closed to public scrutiny. We are frustrated by your refusal to consult on these matters despite repeated requests that we have made to you. We are particularly frustrated that you and your government have crushed the process that your government committed to in the Open Government Partnership. You and your government have so far refused to implement the recommendations of the Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) and the OECD on how to increase transparency in public administration. And instead of making things more transparent, you are increasingly covering them up with mud.
We therefore ask you to:
- Publish immediately updated declarations of assets and interests of yourself and your colleagues in accordance with the law;
- Launch a public consultation on how to increase transparency in public administration.
We are publishing this letter for the benefit of all.
Regards,
Vicki Ann Cremona
President