The Malta Independent 13 February 2025, Thursday
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Speaker says he cannot oblige government to table declaration of assets in Parliament

Andrea Caruana Wednesday, 22 January 2025, 18:42 Last update: about 21 days ago

Speaker Anglu Farrugia ruled on Wednesday that he had no basis to oblige or recommend that the declaration of asset submissions of the Cabinet are tabled in Parliament.

PN MP Karl Aquilina had sought the ruling from the Speaker on Tuesday as he sought the Speaker to oblige Prime Minister Robert Abela and the members of his Cabinet to table their declaration of assets for the year 2023.

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In his ruling, the Speaker drew a distinction between two types of declarations of assets that must be submitted by MPs; those which must be submitted by all MPs to the Speaker and those which must be submitted by the ministers and parliamentary secretaries to the Secretary of Cabinet.

He went on to state that he had referred to the regulations that concern the Declaration of Assets of Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries as well as all MPs within the respective Code of Ethics.

The speaker said that whilst the declaration of assets of the MPs that are in the Speaker’s custody are available to the public by a set procedure, the declaration concerning ministers and parliamentary secretaries is a separate procedure that requires the tabling of the forms in parliament prior to them being made available to the public.

He went on to say that unless there is legal necessity to table the declaration of assets of the ministers and parliamentary secretaries the Speaker cannot oblige any ministers or parliamentary secretaries to table their declarations.

After making reference to a variety of rulings including from the House of Commons – which is the practice taken when Malta’s own standing orders do not cater for a particular instance – the Speaker concluded that the fact that on a number of occasions the assets of the executive were tabled is no basis for him to oblige or even recommend that the declarations should be tabled.

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