Standards Commissioner George Hyzler has found no breach of ethics in the way Minister Carmelo Abela handled Ghana High Commissioner Jean Claude Galea Mallia, but he did highlight a number of procedural shortcomings in ambassadorial appointments.

Hyzler was acting on a complaint filed by an Anton DeBono on 10 January 2020, who requested him to investigate the appointment of Galea Mallia as Malta’s Honorary Consul in Ghana and later High Commissioner of the same country.

The Complainant stated that in the summer of 2017 he had discovered that Galea Mallia was in a business partnership with Aaron Galea, a Maltese national resident in Ghana who was wanted by the police in Malta in connection with allegations of fraud, and who was the subject of national and international arrest warrants.

Aaron Galea had allegedly defrauded people in Malta of some €1 million through an unlicensed investment scheme, and reports in 2010 said that he was on the run in the African nation. Galea Mallia worked with one of Galea’s companies as from 2009.

The complainant alleged that Carmelo Abela – as Foreign Affairs Minister at the time – had known about Galea Mallia’s links to the fugitive and still proposed that he be appointed High Commissioner to Ghana, and call for his resignation along with that of his Permanent Secretary and the High Commissioner himself.

The complainant also complained that Abela had failed to inform Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Appointments about the association between Galea Mallia and Galea when it was considering the former’s appointment as High Commissioner. 

Hyzler said however that he could not investigate this aspect of the complaint because it occurred on a date before which he can, by law, investigate. 

Hyzler said however that while he could not investigate the key aspects of the complaint, he could investigate whether Abela should have recalled High Commissioner Galea Mallia.

In this regard, Hyzler said that there has been no prima facie breach of ethics on the Minister’s part on the basis that there seem to be no grounds for the Minister to recall the High Commissioner.

“Minister Abela stated that he was not aware of his nominee’s business interests with a person who was a fugitive from justice in Malta, despite emails showing that he had been copied in on such intelligence and had actively participated in that exchange. The Minister explained that, at the time, his focus had been exclusively on the fugitive’s possible involvement in the trade visit to Ghana, and subsequently he did not recall the exchange of emails”, Hyzler said.

“I accept that the Minister did not deliberately seek to mislead me although I do expect in future that, prior to making a statement of this nature to my office, one would make proper checks and not rely on memory, especially when they are handed all documentation and given the opportunity to reply in writing”, he added.

The Standards Commissioner did however highlight a number of procedural shortcomings in ambassadorial appointments.

In this regard, he recommended that the Ministry for Foreign Affairs should be required to conduct more extensive due diligence before advancing a nomination for an ambassadorial post.

“Such due diligence should cover not only security-related issues but also the nominee’s commercial activities and interests. The results of this due diligence should be forwarded to the Public Appointments Committee and in sufficient time for it to take the information into account in its consideration of the nomination”, he recommended.

Hyzler also recommended that the Ministry should establish precisely what commercial activities, if any, continue to be carried out by its High Commissioner in Ghana. The Ministry should monitor those activities, if any, to ensure that there is no conflict with his role as High Commissioner and that the distance with Aaron Galea is duly maintained.

Finally, he said that it does not appear that any individual within the Ministry for Foreign Affairs had informed the police that Aaron Galea, a person sought by them in connection with alleged financial crimes, is residing in Ghana.

A copy of the report was hence forwarded to the Commissioner of Police “in the hope and expectation that, with the full support and cooperation of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Malta’s High Commission in Ghana, he will be able to establish the precise whereabouts of Galea and take such action as is necessary to bring him to Malta to face justice.”

Hyzler's full report can be read here.