📷Left to right: Emanuel Delia (Repubblika Executive Officer), Paula Fleri Soler (Repubblika Treasurer), Edward Warrington (Repubblika Executive Committee member), Charles Deguara (Auditor General), Vicki Ann Cremona (Repubblika President), Judge Emeritus Joseph Zammit McKeon (Ombudsman), Chief Justice Emeritus Joseph Azzopardi (Commissioner for Standards in Public Life), Sandro Rossi (Repubblika Executive Committee member), Renato Camilleri (Repubblika Vice President)
On International Anti-Corruption Day, Repubblika recalls the need for a civic alliance to defend integrity in public life.
In a meeting today of the Repubblika committee and officials with the leaders of institutions that defend integrity, the organization’s president Vicki Ann Cremona thanked the Ombudsman Joseph Zammit McKeon, the Auditor General Charles Deguara, and the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life Joseph Azzopardi, for their efforts to combat corruption.
Professor Cremona recalled that the first priority identified by Repubblika in its anti-corruption strategy remains the implementation of valuable recommendations made by the Public Inquiry following the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia and by international institutions in recent years. “We cannot continue to pretend that we do not face a serious challenge due to endemic corruption in our country’s public administration,” said Vicki Ann Cremona. “We cannot allow much-needed reforms to our laws and administrative processes to gather dust.”
To seriously combat corruption, we must update definitions in the law to punish those who abuse their power to profit illegally or to obstruct the course of justice. We need a law that equips the state to fight organized crime that uses corruption to rob us all. We need updated rules on lobbying ministers and members of parliament; rules on ethical conduct for persons of trust hired by ministers; and clear rules for those leaving politics only to be hired the next day by the people and companies they were supposed to be watching out for when they were in government.
Professor Cremona reiterated Repubblika’s call for a new law on political party financing to eliminate hidden funding from people intent on corrupting our political system. Instead, Repubblika argues for public funding of our democracy that is fair, proportionate, and with all the necessary safeguards.
Repubblika today joined anti-mafia organisations across Europe with whom it partners in the CHANCE network to mark International Anti-Corruption Day.
Today’s meeting with the leaders of institutions that defend integrity saw an exchange of views on how civil society can be more supportive in the fight against corruption by strengthening its watchdog role in public life, and how to denounce and act against corruption wherever it is found.
Repubblika’s Anti-Corruption Strategy and Manifesto – “Defending Integrity” – was published on 5th October 2024.
