The resignation of Affordable Housing Minister Roderick Galdes "has confirmed how wrong is the government's decision to discontinue the annual publication of the detailed returns by ministers and parliamentary secretaries about their income, assets and financial obligations", former Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Alfred Sant writes today.

Prime Minister Robert Abela for the last two years has refused to publish details related to the assets held by members of his Cabinet, claiming a reform is needed so as to include all MPs. In two years, this reform has as yet to materialise.

Galdes resigned last Saturday.

That MPs should be put in the same basket as ministers "does not hold water", Sant writes in his bi-weekly blog on The Malta Independent.

"An MP - unless he/she has been appointed to a major state position - will surely not have the same influence on government decisions as a minister; even less so from the Opposition side" he writes.

See Sant's blog in full here