The Government and Opposition did not see eye to eye when it came to a legal draft being discussed in Parliament which gives regulatory authorities more power to impose penalties and fines without the need of courts.

By introducing the legal draft 198, which is part of the Interpretation Amendment Act, the Government wants to help speed up court processes so that the institutions work better, Minister for Justice Edward Zammit Lewis said.

The objects and reasons of this Bill are to amend the Interpretation Act for the purpose of regulating the interpretation of the classification of laws or punishments as criminal in nature.

This is done with particular reference to the situation where an Act confers a power upon a public authority which exercises regulatory, supervisory, compliance, investigatory or enforcement functions to impose a civil penalty, an administrative fine or other civil or administrative pecuniary or non-pecuniary sanction or administrative measure.

This would give the regulatory authorities – such as FIAU and MFSA – the ability to hold a judgement on a given penalty.

“We want our institutions to work. We want the citizens to feel that it was imposed on him could go to the courts and contest. We are saying that there is ambiguity and there is something that does not help,” Zammit Lewis remarked.

He said that the PN has a right to criticise but accused it of not proposing any idea as to how to speed up the processes in courts.

“I’m not going to let anyone jam the National Regulatory Authorities of our country so that they don’t do their work in those that break the law and money laundering. They didn’t even make one attempt to suggest a proposal, so that when we go abroad, we can say clearly that our institutions are working.”

“This is not an attempt to stifle the right to a fair hearing,” Zammit Lewis said.

 

Opposition’s reaction

PN MP Karol Aquilina criticised Zammit Lewis, saying that the Minister has received an impressive amount of criticism. The PN had already cemented its position against the legal draft last week.

“This legal draft will obviously go against the constitution. One has to raise his voice against this legal draft.”

Aquilina said that it is a fact that Labour and PN governments set up authorities that they see the laws are followed, and they can impose administrative penalties which go into the thousands.

Where there is an administrative penalty, it would be considered as a criminal charge. The Maltese and European courts consider them as criminal sanctions, so they follow different legal remits.

If this happens, there is the right to a fair hearing. Therefore, you are judged by a judge or magistrate that are independent and impartial, not the one who is investigating the subject of the case.

In our country, there was given two fundamental sentences. The first one in 3rd May 2016, and in 8th October 2018. In these two sentences, the constitutional court deemed that there needs to be the right to a fair hearing throughout the process.”

PN MP Therese Comodini Cachia said that the constitution should be defended as it defends the rights of the citizens. “The constitution governs the government,” she said.

“Where there are substantial penalties, it is only courts that can decide whether the ruling given is just. The government wants the boards – that are generally handpicked by him – to pass on judgements instead of the courts.”

“This is a Government that believes he is above everyone. The constitution defends all people, irrelevant of whether you vote red, blue or orange. Whoever judges you should not see colours, but facts.”