Police officers can be charged with a crime if they fail to pay a Malta Police Fund subscription fee – as stipulated in a 1919 law. The Commissioner of Police is tasked to maintain the fund.

This law is enforced to till this day, as has been confirmed by the Police's CMRU unit.

Police are obliged to pay the contribution which is part of the fee they pay to the Malta Police Association. The law stipulates that every police officer must pay €13.98 every quarter. While €11.65 goes towards the MPA, the rest go towards the commissioner’s fund.

High ranking police officers who spoke to this newsroom said that police officials who have a high rank pay a further €7, apart from the €13.98 obligatory fee. This has raised questions to why high-ranking officials have to pay an additional sum every quarter when the law makes it amply clear that the amount police are obliged to pay is €13.98.

Other sources explained that the amount is split as follows: The €7 additional contribution goes towards the Officers Mess fund. €11.65 goes towards the MPA, while the rest go towards the commissioner’s fund. This covers the costs of funerals, Christmas parties for police officers and their children.

However, on this point alone, sources explained that they are still subject to paying an additional fee – around €20 - for events related to the Officers’ Mess.

Chapter 11 subsection 3 of the subsidiary legislation of the Malta Police Regulations states that ‘membership of the Officers’ Mess shall be compulsory and on subscription, provided that the subscription fee in respect of officers holding a particular rank shall not be increased without the consent of the majority of the officers of that rank. Membership of the Other Ranks’ Canteen shall be voluntary and on no subscription.

Whether police officers have children or not, €7 is collected from each officer and a party held. Other events covered by this particular fund include the Police Day party and police officers who are ill. Therefore, a portion goes towards the Mutual Help Association – the subscription of which is also paid by retired policemen.

But sources said that in the event a police officer is injured while on duty, there’s no insurance policy to cover them. As things stand, they are not covered medically and have to pay for their own treatment. This is about to change as soon as the police trade unions are in place following a new law passed enabling police officers to join  a union of their choice. One particular union – the POU - has vowed to fight for an insurance cover for police officers.

Speaking to this newsroom, Inspector Sandro Camilleri, who heads the legal office of the Police Force, and who is also the president of the POU suggested that a portion of the subscription fee paid should go towards an insurance cover for all police officers.

As for the 1919 law, the law stipulates as follows: ‘The Commissioner shall continue to maintain, for the general benefit of the Force, the fund, commenced in November, 1919, styled “The Malta Police General Fund”, to which every member of the Force makes a contribution of €13.98c to be paid every three months. (2) All members of the Force who joined the Force after 30 November, 1919, shall be deemed to be required to pay these subscriptions as a condition of their service. (3) Any other funds of the Force, raised by subscription, shall be voluntary’.

MPA says it is in process of switching to a union

The MPA president - Supt Antonello Grech – told this newsroom that the Malta Police Association will soon become a trade union.

This newsroom asked the MPA if it will be handing the membership fee funds it collected from police officers over the years to the Commissioner of Police until the transition period is over and the union is renewed.

Sources explained that the MPA has to register as a trade union and therefore should have handed the funds to the Corps. However, Supt Grech insisted that this section of the law was repealed and therefore the MPA is not obliged to handing the funds to the Police Force until it registers itself as a union.

Sources said that the MPA won’t be charging a fee for 2015 to entice members of the force to join it. Sources also raised the question to what is left of the funds collected over the years by MPA.

Supt Grech said that the accounts of the MPA are audited by a member of the MPA itself and the accounts are public. When asked why it is not the auditor general’s office that conducts the auditing exercisehe said that the law stipulates that it is the commissioner’s fund which has to be audited by the Auditor General.

Section 12 (4) of the police regulations reads: ‘The accounts of the Malta Police General Fund shall be audited annually by the Auditor General.’

CMRU confirms contributions by its members to Mutual Help Fund mandatory

The Police’s CMRU unit has confirmed with this newsroom, after this newsroom sent a series of questions, that it is mandatory members of the Force pay a contribution to the Mutual Help Fund and failure to submit payment may result in the institution of disciplinary proceedings.

Nevertheless, the CMRU said, contrary to what is being claimed, this fee does not only incorporate the Malta Police Association Fund, but also the General Fund, and the Mutual Help Association Fund.

 

This is, however, in the process of being revised following the introduction of the right to members of disciplined corps to join a union. Yet, as things stand, the Malta Police Association is still legally recognised as such as it is still in its transitory phase of becoming a union.