Bill No. 137, which the government has just published and wants to pass into law before the summer recess, will protect corrupt officials. While this bill is less severe than the Prime Minister’s previous threat to guarantee impunity for officials who commit criminal acts, it still represents a serious step backward for our country’s already weak anti-corruption infrastructure.
This law crushes the rights of corruption victims and protects corrupt officials because it dismantles the effectiveness of Article 1051A of the Civil Code – one of the few tools corruption victims currently have to seek justice.
Bill 137 shifts the consequences of corrupt acts committed by public officials from those officials to the State. This means that public officials who commit acts of corruption will now avoid civil consequences for their actions unless those actions are first proven in a criminal court that must definitively find them guilty.
This is a serious and dangerous step backward. The new law builds a wall between those who abuse power and their victims. It shields corrupt officials with the armor of the State and warns their victims – individuals and businesses who have suffered real harm due to corruption – that they can only take action against those who abused their power to recover what was lost if the State first prosecutes and secures a conviction.
Article 1051A of the Civil Code currently gives corruption victims the right to seek compensation from public officials responsible for the losses they suffered due to corruption. Bill 137 does not remove this provision but guts it and dismantles its effectiveness.
In simple terms, when this new Bill becomes law, corruption victims will be forced to sue the State, not the officials who committed the corruption. Personal consequences for the corrupt will disappear unless there is a final decision from a criminal court. Precautionary measures against these officials will automatically be lifted, and even provisionally, the money they stole through corruption cannot be frozen.
It must be clear that these are rights citizens currently have under the law, and the government is taking them away.
This new Bill sends the message that civil accountability applies to everyone except corrupt officials. Citizens will still be able to sue corrupt officials from private companies, for example. But they will lose the right to sue a government official who is either corrupt or who saw the corruption and remained silent to allow it to happen.
Unless there is a criminal conviction – which we know is rare in Malta in corruption cases – the corrupt official walks away and keeps what they stole.
We do not object to protecting public officials who make genuine mistakes. But this law does not distinguish between genuine mistakes and abuse of power. In fact, we believe the government is holding conscientious officials hostage – those who want protection from personal consequences in case of a mistake – to use a law that protects them in order to protect the corrupt or those officials who knowingly do nothing to stop others’ corrupt acts.
This Bill treats a minor administrative error and the embezzlement of millions of euros the same way. In both cases, the official is protected, and if the civil court finds that citizens were victims of corruption, it is the citizens themselves who will pay the compensation through their taxes – not the thief. We become double victims of corruption: first when the official steals from us, then when we pay back what was stolen.
With this cover to shield corrupt officials and the requirement to raise the burden of proof of corruption to that required for a criminal conviction, the government is dismantling the legal deterrent we currently have against abuse of public office. The government is incentivizing impunity. The government is closing off a path that Maltese citizens and businesses currently have when harmed by corruption.
This reform is another wound in the ongoing capture of the Maltese State and the systemic corruption we suffer. We have seen what happens when corrupt officials act without fear of consequences. This law does not stop corruption. Instead, it guarantees impunity. It does not defend the public service. Instead, it protects those who betray it.
We appeal for this Bill to be amended so that State protection for public officials excludes cases of corruption, abuse of office, and fraud. We appeal for the right of corruption victims to seek damages directly from corrupt officials without the need for a criminal conviction to remain untouched. We appeal for Parliament to strengthen, not weaken, the Civil Code provisions that offer access to justice for those harmed by abuse of power.
Justice delayed is justice denied. This Bill is designed to delay and deny accountability. It must not pass in its current form.
We also reiterate our appeal to the authorities that before rushing to Parliament to change laws that continue to erode citizens’ rights, they consult the public and civil society and recognize the sacred democratic right of those whose rights are being taken away, to be heard.