The Nationalist Party took aim at the Standard Commissioner's decision not to revise a decision he took regarding Energy Minister Miriam Dalli, saying that the Commissioner "is rendering himself part of the system of impunity."
The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life Joseph Azzopardi has said that there is no basis to revise the conclusion his Office had given on a case regarding Energy Minister Miriam Dalli, after the PN had filed a request for the Commissioner to correct and revise part of a report.
The report had found Dalli in violation of ethics, but PN MP Karol Aquilina, who was the one who asked for the revision of the report, said that it was wrong for the Commissioner to close the case with a simple apology from Dalli, based on the argument that Dalli was not minister when a prior report on the same abuse was published by former Commissioner George Hyzler on other Ministers.
Aquilina said that Dalli was appointed Minister on 23 November 2020, while the earlier report referred to by the Commissioner was published in January 2021. Dalli was already a Minister when the report referred to by the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life was published. He also asked the Commissioner to forward the corrected report on Dalli to the Parliamentary Committee on Standards so that action may be taken on it according to the Standards in Public Life Act.
Commissioner Azzopardi said that the case was closed for two reasons: He said that Dalli was not yet Minister on 1 November 2020, when Commissioner Hyzler received the complaint, but she was indeed Minister on 25 January 2021, when Commissioner Hyzler issued his report on the case.
The second reason given by the Commissioner as to why Dalli's case was closed under Article 22(5) of the Act, was that the time passed since the decision of the previous case remains valid. On this point, in his report on Dalli, the Commissioner had said that one needs to take into consideration that more than three and a half years passed since the last case of this nature was decided by the Office of the Standards Commissioner.
"There is no basis to revise the conclusion of case K/058 and to refer it to the Committee on Standards," Azzopardi said.
The report said that Dalli's case affirms the principle that official statements issued by government should not include partisan comments. Azzopardi said that the way the case was closed does not affect this fact, but rather that through the strength of Article 22(5) of the Act, the case was able be concluded in a quicker and more definitive manner. This article should not be easily discarded in a case where the Act permits its application, the Commissioner said.
But the Nationalist Party disagrees with the Standards commissioner, and slammed his decision.
"Despite that, after we brought it to his attention, he had to admit that he made a serious error in the report he made about Minister Miriam Dalli, the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life refused to review the way he closed the case; that is, with a simple apology from Minister Miriam Dalli," a PN statement signed by the party's Shadow Minister for Justice Karol Aquilina, read.
"The Nationalist Party reminds that, in the same report, Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi found Minister Miriam Dalli guilty of violating articles 4.9, 4.10, and 7.4 of the Code of Ethics for Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries. With Thursday's decision, the Commissioner is protecting Minister Miriam Dalli from the consequences that should result from the report he himself wrote," the PN statement read.
"With this behaviour, the Commissioner is rendering himself part of the system of impunity and disregard that in recent years has brought our country to its knees."
"Therefore, it is now clear to everyone how right the Nationalist Party's Parliamentary Group was to vote against the appointment of former Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi as Commissioner for Standards in Public Life," the PN said.
"The result of this bad decision that was taken by Prime Minister Robert Abela are evident to all: today the Office of the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life has become another institution that does not function in the public interest. Our country needs and deserves a Commissioner for Standards in Public Life who demands that the Prime Minister, Ministers, and Parliamentary Secretaries take responsibility for the abuses they commit, and not someone who seeks to let them off easily," the statement concluded.