The NGO Repubblika has filed a complaint with the Office for Standards in Public Life over Transport Minister Aaron Farrugia’s failure to show up to Parliament to answer questions on Tuesday.
Speaker of the House Anglu Farrugia chastised Transport Minister Aaron Farrugia for avoiding attending a Parliamentary sitting to answer the PN's questions about the assault by Transport Malta officials on a man in Marsa, despite having been in Parliament on Tuesday.
During a ruling on Wednesday, the Speaker said that he wanted to emphasize and send a clear message that parliamentary sittings must be attended.
"Ministers should always act in such a way that they follow the highest standards and in this case, there was an incident making headlines in the media, an issue which fell directly under the remit of the transport minister," Speaker Farrugia said.
Repubblika have now taken the matter a step further by filing a complaint with the Office for Standards in Public Life which deals with possible ethics breaches by MPs.
The role of Commissioner at the office is currently vacant after George Hyzler cut his term short to take up a post at the European Court of Auditors and as the government and opposition butt heads over who should replace him.
In their complaint, Repubblika said that they believe that Farrugia had displayed shortcomings on ethics points concerning taking responsibility in Parliament for their decisions and the actions of entities under their remit, on giving correct information to Parliament, and on being as open as possible with information when in Parliament and in the general public.
The NGO said that Farrugia had breached an ethics point which dictated that Ministers have a duty to attend parliamentary sittings and actively participate in various discussions which Parliament can have from time to time.
“Repubblika is very worried that Parliament is losing its mission of scrutinising the government and is instead becoming a rubber stamp for the executive,” the NGO’s president Robert Aquilina wrote in the complaint.
He requested that the Standards Commissioner investigates Farrugia’s behaviour and makes recommendations as they deem fit accordingly.