The idea of creating clear guidelines regarding adverts would help, but the laws is still clear and should be followed, Standards Commissioner Gerorge Hyzler told the Standards Committee.

This comes after a report published by Hyzler had found that.OPM minister Carmelo Abela breached ethics with the publication of a newspaper advert that was intended to boost his image, rather than provide information of value to the public, Hyzler said.

The report was published last Wednesday after an agreement was reached during a meeting of Parliament’s ethics committee. It had been sent to the Speaker a number of weeks back.

Reacting, civil society group Repubblika, which had filed the complaint, called on Prime Minister Robert Abela to take action.

Hyzler commented on the point that the advert was published during the time when there was a reshuffle rumoured to take place.

“The minister tried to defend his position that it wasn’t during ‘election mode’, but it was reported in newspapers that a reshuffle would be made in government, so I understand that he wasn’t influencing the electorate, but rather the decision of PM Abela as to who he will choose,” Hyzler said.

He added that the fact that there was a certain rush to get the advert published fortified his opinion about Abela’s breach of ethics. “There was another thing, in order to get this promotion published, there was a certain rush. The Minister himself said that. What was the rush?” he questioned.

“That promotion was self-promotion, that’s my subjective opinion from what I studied. It put no light on the ministry, expect for the few slogans,” Hyzler said. 

The Standards Czar said that he has no problems with Ministers publishing for self-promotion; just not with public funds. “The promotion was published on many newspapers, if he wants to do such promotions for himself, he can, but not with public funds,” Hyzler remarked.

Minister for Justice Edward Zammit Lewis said that he believes that there should be clear guidelines on this. Hyzler agreed for there to be guidelines but said that the law “already stipulates that resources of the state should not be used for partisan reasons.” He also said that he has no problem with helping to create guidelines.” He still pointed out, however, that there are “principles” and “common sense” that need to be followed.

“I sometimes have my doubts, but in this case, the line was well-crossed. If there was no reason that it was clearly crossed, I would have given the benefit of the doubt,” Hyzler remarked.

Hyzler was strongly critical of certain people, who fall under his remit to investigate, for giving “half-truths” when it comes to extraction of information. “From now onwards, I will not accept taking half-truths for questions I ask. I am not saying that it happened in this case, but I will not tolerate it anymore,” Hyzler observed.

PN MP Therese Comodini Cachia noted that Hyzler said that this is the 3rd time a report similar to this came out, after the report read that certain ministers did not show good practice when posting on social media by promoting personal social media accounts with public funds.  

The rules of ethics which were breached are still the same rules that Hyzler was referring to back in those cases, it was noted. However, the Standard Commissioner did note a positive impact after he published the reports relating to social media use of ministers.

“There was a good impact after that, on social media the ministers seem to be following the rules,” Hyzler remarked.