Economy Minister Silvio Schembri was found to have used taxpayer-funded persons of trust for constituency work, but the parliamentary Standards Commissioner concluded there is insufficient evidence to establish a systematic breach of ethics, closing the case without sanction.
The investigation into Schembri's use of persons of trust for constituency-related tasks was triggered by requests submitted in March 2023 by Momentum chairperson Arnold Cassola and former Repubblika president Robert Aquilina, who each called for a probe by the Standards Commissioner in Public Life Joseph Azzopardi.
These requests followed a statement made by Schembri in Parliament, which was subsequently reported by The Shift News in an article titled 'Schembri admits using ministerial staff for his personal constituency offices'.
The complaints centred on whether members of the Minister's secretariat - state employees funded by taxpayers, were being inappropriately assigned partisan constituency duties, in potential violation of public service regulations, the ministerial code of ethics, and the principle that ministers must separate their executive responsibilities from their roles as MPs.
When questioned by PN MP Rebekah Borg about whether his Ministry staff were handling constituency work, Schembri responded that staying close to the public was part of his secretariat's mission and that he had no intention of changing that approach.
In his testimony to the Standards Commissioner, the Minister offered a more detailed explanation, stating that such tasks were infrequent, carried out voluntarily, and performed outside of official working hours.
Three secretariat members - Edward Portelli, Jolene Flask, and Sonia Mifsud - testified during the inquiry.
Their accounts largely echoed the Minister's, although the Commissioner noted some discrepancies between their testimonies and Schembri's.
Nonetheless, all three maintained that their involvement in constituency work was voluntary and took place after office hours.
The commissioner expressed more doubt over a statement made by Cabinet Secretary Ryan Spagnol, who defended the practice in a letter, claiming Ministerial staff could assist with constituency matters since their job description included "coordination of diary and correspondence including constituency matters."
However, Commissioner Azzopardi clarified that this clause merely referred to managing schedules and correspondence of calendar events, not allowing them to engage directly in constituency work.
Assigning secretariat members to work in constituency offices, he said, would cross ethical boundaries.
Despite this, the Commissioner concluded there was not enough evidence to prove that Schembri had regularly directed his staff to carry out constituency tasks and therefore decided not to uphold the complaint or impose any sanctions.