Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1063613
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 19 DECEMBER 2018 7 NEWS ANALYSIS • The Police remain re- sponsible for investiga- tive work. 3. MPs • Conflicts of interest should be avoided, inter alia by strengthening the rules on incompatibili- ties as laid down in Arti- cle 54 of the Constitution and tightening the rules as regards appointments of MPs to officially ap- pointed bodies. • Salaries of MPs should be revisited. • MPs should benefit from non-partisan informa- tion to perform their role of critical controller of the government. • Increase parliamentary staff that can assist the MPs in their work and/ or the establishment of a senior consultative body. • Extensive use of delegat- ed legislation should be avoided. 4. Presidential powers • Strengthening the Presi- dency by electing the President with a quali- fied majority in Parlia- ment, combined with an anti-deadlock mecha- nism. • It would be preferable for the President to be more remote from the major- ity of the day. • President can only be re- moved by qualified ma- jority. 5. Prime Minister's powers • Reinforce systems of checks and balances to mitigate the predomi- nance enjoyed by the Prime Minister. • The judiciary, president, parliament and ombuds- man need to be strength- ened. 6. Permanent secretaries • These high-ranking of- ficials should be selected upon merit by an in- dependent civil service commission and not by the Prime Minister • Permanent secretaries should not be political appointees, but inde- pendent and permanent, high level, civil servants, who should be able to serve any government. • Perm secs should have security of tenure, un- til retirement or dis- missal for good specified reasons 7. Persons of trust • Introduce a constitution- al amendment and legis- lation that allow persons of trust but limit their number and type of ac- tivities they are involved in. • Only activities directly related to the exercise of power should be consid- ered as a valid exception from the general system of appointments in the public service. 8. Police • The Police Commission- er should be appointed following a public com- petition. • Police should be bound by instructions from the prosecution. able to no one. Even the suggestion for a qualified majority voting to elect the President, he added, was not new. Indeed, in 2009 Debono had proposed a two- thirds majority in parliament to elect the President. The suggestion was part of a list of reforms the then PN MP had proposed in his pri- vate capacity, only to be ig- n o r e d by the N a - tionalist administration of the time. Debono said that even his proposal, almost 10 years ago, had already been made two decades earlier as part of talks to change the Constitution. "Thank you, Venice Com- mission, for providing a for- midable diversionary tactic from the really urgent and pressing issues this country has right now. We are eter- nally grateful for coming up with a proposal that was made in the Maltese parliament 30 years ago and repeated 10 years ago. Very learned in- deed!" While Debono's blog- post had sarcasm writ- ten all over it, former Nationalist minister Michael Falzon said the proposals made by the Venice Commission targeted aspects of Malta's democratic set-up that were never ad- journed. The wide powers enjoyed by Maltese prime ministers were inherited from the British co- lonial system but while Brit- ain adjusted its systems along the years, in Malta politicians failed to do likewise, Falzon noted. "Some prime ministers used their power in a prudent way, others were less prudent," he added. Falzon said that while the powers enjoyed by the AG in Malta are reminiscent of the British system, in the UK changes were enacted some decades ago to create a Crown Prosecution Office. This removed the power of the police to decide when to prosecute, placing prosecu- tions in the hands of the new office. "But here in Malta we are stuck with what we got from colonial times without chang- ing things," Falzon said. However, the veteran politi- cal observer put his finger on an inherent problem of Maltese society – its small size. "Everyone knows every- one or is related to someone, making many of the institu- tional relationships incestu- ous. These are the problems that big countries do not have," Falzon said, adding this was something unavoidable in a small society. He commanded major legal changes enacted by the La- bour government since 2013, including a law regulating po- litical party financing, the re- moval of criminal libel and the lifting of time-bar on cor- ruption cases by politicians and public officials. "Obviously, more has to be done to change our systems but we also have to under- stand that there are natural limitations in a small society, that cannot be easily over- come," Falzon said. told us nothing new Michael Falzon Franco Debono President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar