Public appointments act ‘a sieve with large holes’ – AD

Alternattiva Demokratika yesterday criticised the government over its announcement that public appointments will be made in consultation with a specially appointed parliamentary committee saying that, while this was a small step forward it was still “a far cry of what is expected in modern democracies.”

On Monday Justice Minister Owen Bonnici announced that the heads of regulatory bodies and politically appointed representatives abroad will first have to be scrutinised by a new consultative parliamentary committee. The committee will be made up of three government members and two from the Opposition. The committee’s recommendation will not be binding, but the scrutiny will be public.

AD Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said: “The proposed law has not been published yet and so all we know is based on Owen Bonnici’s declarations. According to Bonnici, government, will continue to have the last word, but will seek the advice of a parliamentary committee before making political appointments of ambassadors and the chairmen of a number of public entities. This is a small step forward, however the scrutiny that parliament will be empowered to make seems very limited. Questions can only be sent in writing and will be limited only to professional competence.

“These limitations on parliamentary powers of scrutiny is a joke and means that in practice the scrutiny which can be done is very limited and will hardly serve its purpose unless the designated persons are incompetent people.

“We are told that appointments will go through a parliamentary ‘sieve’. But this sieve will have very large holes,” Cacopardo said.

“In the recent election’s manifesto (and even in that of the election before it) we Greens proposed a much more effective policy, that is that parliament (or its committees) decides and not merely advises on public appointments through a public hearing and without limitations.”

Yesterday, the PN said the act was a positive step which, however, came too late. It said the government had, in the past five years made ‘scandalous’ appointments where people were given roles not because of their abilities but because of their loyalty towards the Labour Party.

Regulatory bodies that are affected by this new system include the Central Bank of Malta, the Malta Financial Services Authority, the regulator for Energy and Water Services, the authority for Transport in Malta, the Malta Communications Authority, the Malta Gaming Authority, the Planning Authority, the Environmental and Resources Authority, the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations, the Lands Authority, the Malta Competition for Consumer Affairs Authority, the Malta Medicines Authority, the Malta Tourism Authority, the National Commission for Higher Education and the Financial Intelligence Analyses Unit.