The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life George Hyzler has sent a stern warning to Speaker Anglu Farrugia after a meeting of parliament’s standards committee was again postponed because government MPs on the committee refused to attend. 

The committee meeting was due to discuss the publication of a report of an investigation by the Commissioner’s office into personal adverts for Minister Carmelo Abela in local newspapers which were allegedly paid for by his ministry. 

In a letter sent to Farrugia today, Hzyler insisted that the decision on whether and when to publish his reports should be his responsibility and not the committee’s. 

Hyzler noted that having the committee decide on reports’ publication was being used to “hamper” the committee’s work. 

“Most importantly, it goes against the principle of transparency that my office was established to uphold; it has no basis at law, since this form of censorship certainly was not foreseen by the legislator; and it effectively amounts to the suppression of reports that can be interpreted as an attempt to undermine Parliament in its efforts to raise standards in public life through the setting up of this office,” Hyzler said. 

Last month, Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis and Labour MP Glenn Bedingfield walked out of a committee meeting which was to discuss Hyzler’s report which was triggered by a complaint by Repubblika. 

The complaint was signed by Repubblika president Robert Aquilina, who is the brother of Nationalist MP and justice spokesperson Karol Aquilina. Karol Aquilina is one of the PN’s representatives on the committee. 

The two Labour MPs argued that, given the relation, Aquilina had a conflict of interest and should therefore not be present for the meeting, which was, however, not due to discuss the actual complaint, but rather the report about the Commissioner’s already completed investigation. 

The committee was due to meet today at 10:30am, however Zammit Lewis and Bedingfield wrote to the Speaker of the House yesterday to inform him that they would not be attending the meeting. They also asked the Speaker to investigate what they claimed to be a leak of the report. 

In his letter, Hyzler stressed that his office adopted very strict security standards and was definitely not leaked from his office.  

He went on to explain how the procedure of allowing the committee to decide on the publication of certain reports came about. He explained that at a meeting of the committee held in April 2019 it was decided that while the Commissioner’s office would publish reports in which not guilty was found, or those where guilty was found but where a remedy had been agreed to with the person in question, it would be the committee to decide on the publication of reports where evidence of misconduct has been found and where there is no remedy as outlined in the law. 

“With the benefit of hindsight, I feel that this procedure is creating unnecessary polemics and gives rise to unfounded suspicions that reflect negatively on my office and yours,” Hzyler wrote to Farrugia, before threatening to unilaterally overturn this agreement. 

“With all due respect, I feel that the decision whether and when to publish a report should be my responsibility and not that of the committee. Nothing in the Act gives the Committee the power to decide on the publication of reports.” 

He noted that both the National Audit Office and the Ombudsman were bodies also answered to Parliament, but despite this, they were able to decide for themselves whether and when to publish their reports. 

“I therefore kindly request you to bring this matter up for discussion at the first opportunity as I would not wish to unilaterally reconsider the procedure that was adopted at the aforementioned meeting.” 

The full letter sent to the Speaker can be accessed here.

What do you make of the Commissioner’s warning?