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18 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR Matthew Vella MANAGING EDITOR Saviour Balzan Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 NOVEMBER 2019 8 November, 2009 ''Bi pjaċir'' FINANCE Minister Tonio Fenech may have landed himself in the soup once again, over a serious altercation with a small contracting company that carried out renovation works at his new semi-detached villa in Balzan. MaltaToday is in a position to reveal how the minister used the services of developers JPM Brothers (Montebello), owners of the Jerma Palace Hotel, to renovate his house. But the sub-contractors engaged by Peter Montebello to do the works, have told this newspaper that Montebello told them they were working for the minister, as a favour ("bi pjacir") in return for his intervention in the sale of the Jerma hotel to entrepreneurs George Fenech and Joe Gasan: with whom the minister travelled aboard George Fenech's private jet to watch Arsenal play in Spain back in April 2009. "Peter Montebello said the works were 'bi pjacir', a favour for the minister to help him sell off the Jerma to Gasan and Fenech," Charles Magro – one of the directors of Rain- bow Turnkey Projects – told this newspaper. Magro insisted that this was also told to him personally by Tonio Fenech himself. But the Jerma deal never took place, and with JPM finding itself in serious financial dif- ficulty during the summer, Rainbow Projects had to turn directly to Tonio Fenech for their payment. The pending matter was brought to the at- tention of the Prime Minister's personal secre- tary Edgar Galea Curmi by the turnkey opera- tors themselves. No action has been taken as yet. Finance Minister Tonio Fenech is vehe- mently denying allegations that JPM carried out the works in return for his intervention on a business deal. In February 2008, the turnkey firm Rainbow Projects was subcontracted by the Montebello brothers – developers of the Addolorata tow- ers, the ex-Mistra village and owners of Jerma Palace hotel – to carry out works at 216, Old Railway Road, Balzan. They met up with Jeffrey and Peter Monte- bello and architect Tancred Mifsud – a former PN councillor for Balzan, and member of ME- PA's development control commission. "Peter Montebello told us the works were 'bi pjacir', a favour," sub-contractor Charles Ma- gro said. "We were instructed to keep costs to the bare minimum. We asked them who was con- tracting us, and they said it was the company – JPM Brothers – that was engaging us. So we started issuing our quotes to them." .... MaltaToday 10 years ago Quote of the Week Public roles should not serve private interests Editorial PUBLIC appointments have long been a cause for controversy, in a small island where everyone seems to know everyone else. Yet the problem has, to date, been notoriously difficult to solve. It was, in part, to address this very issue, that the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life has proposed changes to the Constitution to strengthen the independence of Parliament and the judiciary, and reinforce the principle of merit in appointments within public administration. George Hyzler's proposals are set out in a 138-page report which he presented to the Presi- dent of Malta in response to the President's call for submissions on constitutional reform. Among other things, Malta's parliamentary standards czar has recommended that Members of Parliament should be disqualified from the House of Representatives if they accept contracts of any kind from the government or public enti- ties. Similarly, MPs should not be allowed to accept appointments as persons of trust or as members of government boards and committees, George Hyzler said. The report proposes that judges and magis- trates should be selected on merit, following pub- lic calls for expressions of interest to fill specific vacancies in the judiciary. "This would ensure that the best person for each vacancy is appointed. The government should retain its current power to overrule the selection process in exceptional instances, but it should publicise and justify any such cases." The present system of judicial appointments was reformed in 2016 to allow members of the bar to express interest in becoming magistrates and be vetted by a judicial selection committee. But their selection is still dependent on the executive, something that gives the government of the day too much discretion. "Even worse, from the point of view of judicial independence, promotions within the judiciary – from magistrate to judge and from judge to Chief Justice – remain entirely at the discretion of the government." The report also proposes that the Constitution should permit appointments on trust, but only in ministers' secretariats. "Appointments elsewhere in public administration should, as a general rule, be made on merit. The Public Service Commis- sion should be empowered to enforce the merit principle throughout public administration, not only in the Public Service as is currently the case." As a newspaper that has long called for a reform in the way public positions are conferred, Malta- Today can only welcome the Standards Commis- sioner's overdue proposals. The need to regulate this area has long been felt in Malta. Indeed, all these considerations have al- ready been flagged in the past, both by the Coun- cil of Europe's Group of States against Corruption (Greco) report, and more recently by the CoE's Venice Commission report: both of which found serious systemic shortcomings within Malta's power-structures. Nonetheless, it would be simplistic to dismiss the reasons for the present situation: apart from the obvious concern with cronyism, there is also the question of whether an MP's remuneration is sufficient to warrant giving up all other private practices or jobs. Before Joseph Muscat came to power, Lawrence Gonzi had already tried to address this by creating a system of parliamentary assistants to have MPs shadow ministers and earn a higher honorarium. Controversially, he gave ministers their parlia- mentary honorarium, creating the impression of a 'double salary' that allowed Muscat to translate popular anger into a successful crusade for him- self. Muscat was elected in 2013 in part on a 'meri- tocracy' platform. But while the new government scrapped the previous system, Muscat postponed any meaningful reform on parliamentary and ministerial salaries. Instead of parliamentary roles, the Prime Minister gave his MPs jobs with the State – chairmanships, positions of trust, and well-paid directorships. In some ways, this is arguably worse than Gonzi's honoraria fiasco. For Muscat's methods have also cemented the impression that MPs may be abusing their roles by using public platforms to serve private interests. An MP who is also chairman of a government board or authority may give rise to unnecessary conflicts of interest. Moreover, it calls into ques- tion the functionality of the public role itself. Apart from obvious considerations – e.g., any- one appointed to any public office must be a per- son of integrity – it is imperative that our institu- tions are seen to be functioning, regardless of the individual who occupies the post. It's no good having all the best reforms and legislation in the world… if the people appointed do not carry out the duties mandated. We need public officers who will see through any investiga- tion/action as necessary, and not falter at the first challenge. Even if their motives are honest, it is unaccep- table that a serving government MP should also be cast into the role of supervising his or her own government, at any level. As Hyzler – himself a former Nationalist MP and minister – perceptively put it: "Democratic principles require that Parliament should be ca- pable of holding the government to account, but Parliament cannot fulfil this role effectively if backbench MPs are financially dependent on the government." Yet disqualifying MPs from those roles, in itself, does not address the underlying issue. So, while agreeing with the Standards Commissioner's recommendations, this newspaper reiterates that any such reform should also address the issue of substandard remuneration and work conditions for MPs. "This was the work of those who portrayed themselves as the holier than thou, who thought they had a seat reserved in heaven" Former Labour Minister Joe Micallef Stafrace on the Interdett of 1961