Joseph Muscat wasn’t in breach of ethics when he traveled to Dubai with his family in December 2019, Standards Commissioner George Hyzler has found.

Hyzler was asked to investigate this trip, which he took shortly after he announced his resignation as Prime Minister, by Opposition leader Adrian Delia and Partit Demokratiku leader Timothy Alden, who raised concerns about how he funded the holiday.

In his report, the Commissioner said the flights cost around €21,000 and were paid by a third party, who Hyzler chose not to name.

This is despite Muscat having told Times of Malta that he had paid for the trip himself.

“Dr Muscat gave the Commissioner a detailed explanation as to why he took this trip and who paid for it,” the report states. “The Commissioner found no evidence to contradict the explanation given.”

“Dr Muscat requested the Commissioner not to put the details disclosed to him in the public domain. Since it appeared that the visit was private in nature, not related to official government business, and did not involve a breach of ethics, the Commissioner accepted Dr Muscat’s request to withhold publication of the details of the visit.”

“The Commissioner concluded that the host of the visit could not have intended to influence Dr Muscat’s decisions as Prime Minister, since he had already announced his resignation and he had only two weeks remaining in this role. Hence no breach of the Code of Ethics for Ministers occurred.”

“In addition, the host of the visit had no interest in legislation before Parliament or any commercial interest in Malta, so the visit did not represent a breach of the Code of Ethics for MPs.”

“For these reasons the Commissioner did not uphold the complaints.”