Labour MP said the new code of ethics for minister and parliamentary secretaries – compiled in August last year but made available only today – will not increase the ministers’ accountability and transparency.

Writing on Facebook, Dr Farrugia said accountability and transparency will be dented if their closest relatives will not have their assets scrutinised.

“I would have expected that the declaration of assets is widened to cover the people around the ministers, particularly those in positions of trust, political appointees and CEOs.

More than this, a minister should not continue exercising his or her profession. Once a minister accepts a post, he or she would have made a choice, she said.

Dr Farrugia was not the only politician to lambast the new code of ethics. Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil, in a first reaction, said that it is unbelievable that the standards for ministers have been lowered. “This government's standards keep going down by the minute,” he wrote on Facebook.

Former Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Michael Briguglio said that somehow he things that this move to get rich quick is an investment for another 25 years in Opposition for Labour.