Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1311619
5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 22 NOVEMBER 2020 NEWS KURT SANSONE AARON Farrugia has so far failed to publish the transparen- cy register he set up at his min- istry despite pledging to do so earlier this year. But the Environment Minis- ter has justified the decision, insisting that he is waiting for the outcome of a proposal be- ing drafted by the Standards Commissioner for a govern- ment-wide lobby register. Farrugia said he introduced an electronic register to log the names and details of meetings held with individuals and organ- isations soon after taking up his ministerial role earlier this year. "The register logs the names of people that come to meet me or my secretariat and today I am in a position to know who I met on any particular day," Farrugia told MaltaToday. However, he refrained from giving this newspaper a list of meetings and the people in- volved in them. "I have the system in place but I do not want to eclipse the work being done by the Standards Commissioner who is drawing up a proposal for a lobby regis- ter, which would be applicable across the board," Farrugia said. The minister said he holds reg- ular meetings with developers, the Malta Developers Associa- tion, the Chamber of Architects and environmental groups. "I meet these stakeholders frequently – a system that has helped to stave off controversies and more importantly move to- wards intelligent planning… the fruit of this work can be seen in the creation of a consultative fo- rum for intelligent planning, the fuel stations policy and the new rural policy," Farrugia said. When he was appointed envi- ronment minister last January, Farrugia pledged to set up a transparency register and pub- lish the list of all meetings with lobbyists, social partners, busi- nesses and NGOs. Farrugia told Opposition en- vironment spokesperson David Thake last week in parliament that the digital system was final- ised and every individual who sought a meeting at the ministry over the past nine months had their details logged. "Meanwhile, the Commission- er for Standards in Public Life is working on a lobby register, and it would be correct to wait for the outcome of that exer- cise before going ahead with the transparency registry, to ensure the country adopts one model," Farrugia replied to Thake's par- liamentary question. Environment minister's transparency register is not public yet Aaron Farrugia