Prime Minister Robert Abela told Standards Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi in a letter during the latter’s investigation into a complaint filed by independent politician Arnold Cassola that should such “frivolous complaints” continue, then he would have to introduce a “legal remedy.”

Abela was writing to Azzopardi as the Standards Commissioner investigated a complaint filed by Cassola on the Prime Minister’s comments on the driving licence racket.

Azzopardi found no breach of ethics, but warned that “the Prime Minister's words could be seen as a defence of clientelism in Malta’s public administration.”

In the course of his investigations, Azzopardi corresponded with Abela in November 2023, where Abela complained that Cassola had been using the Standards Commissioner to obtain “what he cannot obtain democratically.”

Abela told the Commissioner that he is “seriously preoccupied” that the law governing the Standards Commission is being “consistently abused by a complainant, where is abundantly clear that a plurality of frivolous complaints are being tabled because so far the law does not impose a sanction, just so then such frivolous complaint is rejected only for there to be more frivolous assertions against your office.”

“I understand that if this abuse continues, the remedy is legislative,” he said.

However, the Standards Commissioner disagreed with this notion, saying that Cassola had exercised his right as enshrined by the law, adding that it would be a “step back in the development of Malta’s governmental institutions if this right were to be limited.”

“It is up to the undersigned [the Standards Commissioner himself] to decide whether a complaint is frivolous or abusive.  If it results to be the case, then he can easily refuse to investigate the complaint,” Azzopardi wrote.

18 months have passed since Abela made the notion to Azzopardi, such notion only being published on Thursday as Azzopardi concluded his report.  The government has not introduced any bill seeking to reform or introduce penalties for supposedly abusive cases being filed with the Standards Commissioner.

However, Abela has since moved to limit citizens’ access to magisterial inquiries on the back of similar reasoning: that an individual – in this case former PN MP Jason Azzopardi – was “abusing” of the current system.

That reform was pushed through Parliament this week, despite opposition from the PN, civil society, constituted bodies, and stakeholders within the legal sector.