Labour leader Dr Alfred Sant yesterday made allegations against Parliamentary Secretary Tony Abela, in that his actions were in breach of the ministerial and parliamentary secretary code of ethics, however the PS rebutted by pointing out that the issue in question was a normal government service for citizens – one of 2,000 applications in fact.

Speaking in front of Castille yesterday, Dr Sant said that the Code of Ethics makes it very clear that Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries have to relinquish their private business interests when they are appointed to the Cabinet.

He said that the code has clear provisions for the cessation of directorships, private practice and retainers which the public official should pass over to other persons for the duration of the appointment with the only exception being philanthropic or non-profit activities.

Dr Sant then made public a letter dated 24 January 2005 in which the Parliamentary Secretary allegedly used an OPM letterhead to send a letter to the Joint Office regarding private business on behalf of one of his clients. The Labour leader said that this was a clear breach of the code and that Dr Abela was still working on his private practice today.

However, in a counter-statement, Parliamentary Secretary Abela said the Opposition leader was only trying to trick the public by making unfounded allegations.

He said the letter mentioned by Dr Sant was simply a case of the government providing a service to a citizen. This service, which allows people who had a temporary ground rent contract before 1979 on government homes to apply to buy the ground rent, was introduced by the Nationalist government.

Notary Abela said that the letter published by Dr Sant simply referred to one of over 2,000 applications of this nature which will eventually be published by the Joint Office. He said the Office of the Prime Minister is authorised to make sure that these schemes are carried out.