Transparency in the governance of a country is crucial, so long as it has safeguards that cover the security of the territory plus the prudent running of the economy and of justice.

This should mean that decisions are well prepared and are taken clearly all along the administrative process to the point where they have been concluded. Whoever is taking the decisions should accept responsibility for what he/she has accomplished and must be ready to explain the reasons for decisions taken.

However, what continues to surprise me about certain decisions, is how apparently nobody knows or is prepared to explain well how they were arrived at and who did so. Quite a number of executives seem to have been involved but at the end, they do not assume responsibility for decisions taken. So who then should?  

... You see, the decision making process was spread out among diverse entities and personalities... No minutes or records of what was being done were kept... Meanwhile, the demand for an audit of the decision making process is sidelined... All these and similar approaches amount to dealings that deserve full censure.                       

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LESLIE AGIUS

Back in the 1960s, the foreign service was being set up as a separate branch of the civil service. The first group of recruits included pioneers of Malta based diplomacy like Evarist Saliva and Victor Gauci. Immediately in their wake, “new” recruits followed, like Leslie Agius and a year later, Victor Camilleri and Maurice Lubrano (I was one of them).

My first (and last) posting in the year 1970 was to the Maltese embassy in Brussels. There for two years I shared the same office with Leslie, who gently and with diplomatic tact, showed me how things were being dealt with. I learnt a lot of the qualities of gentleness and diplomatic tact from him although sadly over the years, I did not succeed in displaying them as well as I should have, and certainly much less than he could. Even now, I still treasure the memory of the hospitality accorded by Leslie and his wife Victoria: among other occasions, when at their home, we followed the final of the football World Cup.

Then they left for a new posting to Rome. We never worked together again. Like me some years later, he resigned from the foreign service, although later still he again served as ambassador.

I was shocked and much saddened by news of his death. As a friend, he deserved full respect. My deep condolences go to his family.

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PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT

With the passage of time, I’m increasingly coming to the conclusion that one area where we really need to upgrade how things get done is in the monitoring of professional conduct. In the construction sector, we have gotten used to blame the greed of developers. And we are right in this. In the field of justice, we blame the lack of funds, resources, facilities etc. which are allocated to the courts. And that is also correct. In the health sector, there’s this and that... And that’s true as well.

But who is overseeing the architects, the judges and lawyers, the doctors...?

Are we satisfied with how this is being done?

It seems that yes we are, since profesional conduct is never mentioned in all that gets cried over. Is this perhaps because if things were done differently and one did try to come to grips with the issue seriously... for it is a serious problem! ... huge tempests would arise?