Speaker Anglu Farrugia voted against the adoption of a standards report which had found 18 ministers to have breached ethics by using public funds for a partisan advert in Labour’s newspaper.
In June 2022, former Standards Commissioner George Hyzler had published a report about a supplement published in Labour’s newspaper the previous January on the occasion of Robert Abela leading the party for two years.
In his report, the Commissioner found that 18 ministers participated in the supplement and that all breached four articles of the Ministerial Code of Ethics by spending €16,700 in public funds for a manifestly partisan scope, and had recommended that the money be paid back.
In the vote on whether to adopt the report, the two PN members on the committee – Mark Anthony Sammut and Ryan Callus – voted in its favour, while the two government members – Jonathan Attard and Andy Ellul – voted against, leaving the final vote up to Speaker Anglu Farrugia, who chairs the committee.
When a similar report had been made on former minister Carmelo Abela and his €7,000 advert, the Speaker had abstained from the vote because at the time there were no guidelines for Ministers on how adverts should be done.
Now however, the Speaker chose to vote against the report on the basis that the guidelines which today do exist and which the Commissioner referred to in his report, are not part of the law.
Farrugia reasoned that because the guidlines being referred to are not enshrined in the law, then it creates a conundrum on how to sanction any breaches of it, and whether such sanctions – which he noted are final – could be the subject of court action.
Farrugia also said that the casting vote practice was such that whenever possible it should be used in favour of the continuation of a debate by delaying a decision until there is majority support.
Read: The full Speaker’s decision
“With this reasoning, the Ministerial Code of Ethics which is annexed to the law has become irrelevant and unsanctionable because it is impossible for there to be a guideline on every action that a Minister can do, let alone can they be all part of the law,” the PN said.
The PN members also referred to the fact that the Speaker tried to justify his vote by quoting practices on casting votes in Parliament’s plenary session, where the Speaker usually votes for, where possible, the discussion to continue or for a decision not to be taken unless there is the support of a majority.
“With this motivation, which is not intended to apply for this committee, the Speaker is saying in advance that in such cases he will always be voting against the adoption of these reports,” the PN said.
The party added that this proves how crucial its proposal was, even through a Private Members Bill, for the Standards Committee to not be led by the Speaker and be made up of people who are not part of Parliament.
What happened in Wednesday’s meeting was another slap in the face for standards in public life, and showed that the Ministerial Code of Ethics is now worth nothing, while the government continued to show that it had learnt nothing and the culture of impunity continues to reign, the PN said.