Government, Opposition differ on Commissioner’s concerns regarding persons of trust

The Government and Opposition held differing views regarding a report from the office of The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life citing concerns with Bill 159 which is currently before parliament.

This comes after The Malta Independent asked questions to both Government and the PN about a recent report published by George Hyzler’s office, which cited the Standard Commissioner’s worry regarding a Bill tabled in parliament; Bill 159.

This Bill refers to the appointment of persons of trust and positions of trust.

A PN spokesperson told The Malta Independent that the government has abused its power in appointing persons of trust or positions of trust.

“The appointment of persons of trust or in positions of trust by a Labour government has wreaked havoc to the country’s reputation leaving workers, business owners and families suffering the brunt of bad governance and paying the cost of abuse of power and corruption,” he said.

The PN said that it is analysing the situation regarding Bill 159. “The PN is therefore analysing Bill 159 with the purpose of ensuring that regulation of these positions must establish a strong infrastructure of scrutiny,” the spokesperson said.

“Decisions in the public interest cannot be taken by those who have no merit and who have been appointed to positions merely because of their political allegiance.”

Government whip Glenn Bedingfield provided a detailed reply as he explained that the Venice Commission “welcomed in principle the legislative changes which were proposed by the Maltese Government to regulate the appointment of persons of trust.”

“The engagement of persons of trust has been a standard practice under any Maltese administration, even before Independence. This is not to mention the fact that such a system is an EU, and global, practice,” he remarked.

Bedingfield also noted that the Standards of Public Life Act will introduce a wider definition of ‘person of trust’. He said that it will also amend the Public Administration Act through a new article “which regulates persons of trust, in order to align the limitations on the roles for which such persons may be recruited with those emanating from the new definition in the Standards in Public life Act.”

The Government whip also remarked that the new article will provide that the “number of persons of trust that may be engaged and the conditions of employment of persons of trust shall be stipulated in the Manual on persons of trust published by the Cabinet Office, which shall be laid on the Table of the House of Representatives.”

“It is the Government’s considered opinion that the provisions of Bill 159 provide sufficiently defined parameters, accountability and safeguards in order to prevent arbitrariness or abuse in this particular field of employment,” Bedingfield said.

The subject matter of persons of trust, positions of trust and nepotism is known to be one of the issues in Malta for years under previous PL and PN administrations. It remains to be seen, however, how this Bill will be scrutinised in order to prevent political parties which are elected in government from abusing of this field of employment.

Persons of trust is “generally understood as referring to political appointees … individuals who have been employed by the government of the day without a call for applications. However, the same term as defined in the Act is narrower in scope. Not all persons who hold appointments on trust necessarily fall within the jurisdiction of the Standards Commissioner,” The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life’s report states.

“The government reserves this term for those who are engaged directly from outside the public administration.”

On the other hand, positions of trust are “those who were already employed in public administration before being engaged in secretariats or associated units.”

Some of the main issues that the report highlights can be split into three. First, “there is no requirement that those appointed on trust should be qualified for the vacancies they fill,” the report reads.

“On the contrary, the logic of the bill dictates that the qualification requirements should be waived (although the bill does not spell this out) since the aim is to fill vacancies for which qualified people are not available.”

Secondly, the report also highlighted that the English and Maltese versions of the proposed Bill vary in their meaning, where although in the English text it says that “persons of trust in secretariats will be subject to the Act regardless of the nature of their duties,” it does not include secretariate staff to be considered as persons of trust unless they are acting as consultants.

“This would be a major step backwards,” the report claims.

This constitutes an issue, as by nature of Maltese law, “the Maltese text of a law prevails over the English text, so if the bill is enacted in its current form, all secretariat staff other than consultants would cease to be subject to the Standards in Public Life Act,” the report further read.

This means that the Standards Commissioner would not be able to investigate breaches of ethics for such employees.

This is as the Standards of Public Life Act “[provides] for the appointment of a Commissioner and a Standing Committee with power to investigate breaches of statutory or ethical duties of categories of persons in public life, and for matters ancillary or related thereto.”

Finally, the report noted that persons in positions of trust would be no longer subject to the Standards in Public Life Act. “This too represents a step backwards,” he said.