Outgoing Standards Commissioner George Hyzler gave his final press conference Tuesday outlining new recommendations for Members of Parliament and public life while warning on the repercussions of delayed decision in naming his successor.
Hyzler, who will leave the office Friday to take up a post as Malta’s representative on the European Court of Auditors, said that as yet no successor has been nominated as no agreement has been reached by the government and opposition. “It would be detrimental to leave the office unoccupied as there is a lot of work to do,” Hyzler said.
Hyzler also said that he discussed with the Prime Minister anti deadlock mechanisms to prevent the prolonging of naming a successor. These include naming a temporary appointee and also creating the post of a deputy commissioner.
“I have confirmation by the Prime Minister that a successor will be appointed and the work this office has been doing will not stop. I am also sure that the opposition will be flexible in order to prevent a deadlock situation such as the one in the office of the ombudsman.”
OECD presents its fourth report
On Tuesday, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development presented its final report on the improvements needed on the ethics rules for public officials.
Hyzler introduced the document stating that “the lack of knowledge with regards to the standards of public life have prompted these recommendations to be undertaken.”
The OECD report was requested by the commission in order to improve the integrity and transparency frameworks in Malta. The proposals particularly tackle the issues of lobbying and conflict of interest in Malta.
Another area which the report focuses on is the proper enforcement of going against the code of ethics. OECD public integrity division heat Julio Baccio Terracino stated that “the code of ethics in Malta has to be more clear in order to properly define what is a gift, what should be declared and most importantly what conflict of interests are.”
Recommendations include calls for a specific law on lobbying and cooling-off periods for elected officials after leaving public office.
Another key recommendation is the appointment of lay members to the parliamentary standards committee, and the inclusion of an ex-judge to chair the committee.
The committee is at present chaired by the Speaker, and includes two members each from the government and Opposition. It is tasked with discussing reports compiled by the commissioner and punishing MPs who do not follow the rules.
The OECD report also calls for definitions on, for example, what can be considered as a gift, what is a benefit, what is undue influence, and what is lobbying. These definitions should then be added to a guidebook for all officials.
The problem of conflict of interest in Malta was brought up a number of times with policy analyst Carissa Munro saying that the small size of Malta and the fact that many MP’s are part time workers, makes this a unique problem.
“The recommendations are not a one size fits all and that is why we spent our time studying the landscape in Malta before coming up with these recommendations,” Baccio Terracino said.
Apart from conflict of interest and gifts, the report also calls for proper definitions of benefits, undue influence, lobbying, lack of guidance and also post public employment.
The report warns against the risk of ex ministers being employed in their old regulated sector which could bring about insider trading and so on. Data collected by the OECSD abroad states that 1 in 5 ex ministers end up employed this way, Malta is not yet included in this study.
Munro said that the recommendations build on what is already being done by the Commissioner of Standards.
With regard to conflicts of interest, OECD recommends that MPs do not continue their private work unless in favour of national interest, not act as lobbyists, not enter into contractual employment with close family, not have private interests in private corporations and not hold any assets whose value may directly be affected by government decisions.