Malta must ban public officials’ use of private e-mails for work in order to fight corruption, MP Jason Azzopardi urged through a private members’ bill presented in Parliament.

He said that banning using private accounts for government-related work is essential to hold politicians accountable and should be punishable by prison time. 

Azzopardi noted that the National Audit Office has flagged the lack of documents tracing back to multi-million euro deals under the Joseph Muscat’s cabinet.

In fact, the NAO criticised Muscat’s use of private email for official work which impinged on investigations into corruption into certain deals like the negotiation of a €4.2 million Cafe Premier scandal.

“Obviously, Muscat continued to use his private e-mails until January 2020, so that nothing he did could be traced back,” Azzopardi warned.

“Over the years, up to this very year, we’ve found out that a number of ministers have used their private emails for government work.”

“Such secrecy is only used by those who have something to hide and it is clear that they [used their private e-mails] to make sure evidence isn’t traceable should there be an investigation into corruption.”

The Nationalist MP said that he had no option but to present the idea through a private members bill, which is a raw legislative bill that parliamentary members can submit without the approval of their party because Opposition Leader Adrian Delia has refused to back the proposal for the last three years.

“I had presented this bill back in November 2017 to the Opposition Leader to ask for permission to present it in Parliament. In 2018, 2019 and 2020, I asked and asked again to present this document,” he continued. 

 “The time has come to show how much work went on behind the scenes.  Unfortunately, there were those who wanted this work to remain hidden so they could keep on feeding the lie that they themselves weren’t allowed to work.”

What do you think of Azzopardi’s proposal?