The Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO), the anti-corruption unit within the Council of Europe, yesterday published its second cycle report on Malta. An official Council of Europe statement said the report was being published in agreement with the Maltese authorities.

The second cycle report speaks about the recovery of the products of corruption, corruption within the public administration and the prevention of the practice which uses moral persons as screens to hide corruption.

The report states that Malta has adopted a number of ethical codes, especially in sectors which are vulnerable to corruption, but “it does not yet have a global strategy against corruption”.

Supplementary improvements may be made, the report adds, with regards to access to official documents, procedures to be undertaken once suspicions of corruption in the administration are raised, how these suspicions should be treated, and the abusive migration of public servants to the private sector.

GRECO makes a series of recommendations to Malta to improve its ability to fight corruption.

The measures adopted by Malta to implement these recommendations will be evaluated by GRECO within an established procedure at the beginning of 2007.