Businesses also have an important role to play in favour of good governance

Malta Chamber delegation presents good governance document to Archbishop

The Malta Chamber was not limiting itself to pointing fingers at others, with regards to restoring good governance in Malta, but it was also taking a long hard look at the business community and proposing actions that needed to be taken by businesses themselves, said president Perit David Xuereb during a meeting with the Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna, last week.

Xuereb was leading a delegation from the Malta Chamber to the Archbishop’s Curia in Floriana and presented the archbishop with a copy of Ethical business calls for change – a manifesto for good governance, a document the Malta Chamber authored with the help of a multidisciplinary working group to propose concrete recommendations on the subject.

Perit Xuereb told the archbishop how the Chamber valued his “voice of reason” on matters of morality especially in topics relating to accountability, transparency and good governance. Specifically, he referred to the archbishop’s comments that accountability meant that our leaders would be open and available to public scrutiny, and if necessary criticism, as everyone was legally and politically liable, and no one was above the law.

The Chamber president then explained the highlights of the Chamber’s document on good governance and said it was committed to seeing that as many of the more than 60 recommendations within it, were implemented for the benefit of Malta’s reputation.

Archbishop Scicluna welcomed the initiative by the Malta Chamber of Commerce through the publication of the document and described the document as a step in the right direction and emphasised the importance of the principles of good governance which he has spoken about over the years in his Independence Day homilies.

While stressing the importance of accountability and transparency in all levels of society, both in the private sector as well as in the Church, the archbishop said that those in leadership have an even greater responsibility to ensure a fair and equal distribution of wealth based on the promotion of social justice and the common good.

Perit Xuereb was accompanied by the deputy president of the Malta Chamber Marisa Xuereb, director general Kevin J. Borg, board of management member Chris Vassallo Cesareo and head of Policy Andre’ Fenech.