Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1409324
WHEN the first draft of the Whistleblowers Act was pub- lished well over ten years ago, I predicted it will prove to be a useless piece of legislation, par- ticularly in the Maltese environ- ment. The Gonzi administration was accused of dragging its feet about the proposed law and fi- nally the law was enacted very soon after the first Muscat ad- ministration assumed power. The thrust of the law is to give protection to employees who report illegalities or wrongdoing being carried out by their em- ployers or by other employees, and it applies to both the public and private sector. As far as I know, this law was applied only once since its enact- ment: in the case where the hus- band of the former Minister for Gozo, Giovanna Debono was ac- cused of abusing his position. In this case, it was obvious – from the very idea of the whistleblower status being granted to a Gozitan contractor – that the motiva- tion of a genuine whistleblower is expected to be quite different from that of the contractor who claimed he had accepted to carry out allegedly abusive works, and ended up without being paid for his services. Debono was eventually not found guilty by the Magistrates Court – a decision that was re- cently confirmed by the Appeals Courts. Without entering into the mer- its of the Debono case, there is no doubt that the so-called whistle- blower had personal motives and interests in this case. Where does this leave the Whistleblowers Act? Just as I predicted, it has turned out to be a piece of useless legislation that does not justify the political hype – from both the PN and the PL – with which it was put on the statute book. On paper, whistleblowers are courageous people who are giv- en the right to be protected from disciplinary action, retribution, discrimination and court action. The Gozitan contractor was cer- tainly not one of these people. His respect for good and honest governance hardly played any part in his decision to take the advice of whoever told him to claim whistleblower status. Yet, to date, this was the only case in which the Whistleblower Act was resorted to. As I always insisted, in practice, any whistleblower in the private sector in Malta would be doomed to be unemployed for the rest of his or her life. Employees in the public sector would hardly fare any better – they would be per- manently considered as a nui- sance by the rest of the civil ser- vice. Genuine whistleblowers are nowhere to be seen in Malta, be- cause people prefer to do their thing protected with the veil of anonymity, rather than by law. The real whistleblowing that goes on in Malta is called leaks to the press with which one can now add leaks to the bloggers and news sites who try – not so successfully – to replicate Daph- ne Caruana Galizia's Running Commentary. This is a small island where everybody knows everybody else, where too many people are relat- ed to each other and people act as these circumstances allow them. That is why much of the issues that led to the FATF greylisting will raise the hackles of a lot of people when stricter rules and laws will be imposed. If I am reading the situation correctly, it seems that Robert Abela's administration will cur- rently push for the assuaging FATF concerns in cases that do not have any negative politi- cal impact on the government's popularity. The case of former PN Minis- ter and EU Commissioner, John Dalli, is a case in point. After so many years, the police have now filed a criminal case against him over allegations that he solicited a €60 million bribe from a private company. Dalli denies all accusa- tions. Other steps that would harm the PL politically would be post- poned till after the election. This makes the decision on the timing of the election of paramount im- portance to the matter of Labour being re-elected with a strong – but diminished – majority. The Prime Minister knows well what his administration has to do... and needs no help from peo- ple given whistleblower status. Tuna is back The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has just released an update to its Red List. This list shows the extinction risk of thousands of species around the world. Unfor- tunately, more than 38,000 spe- cies are still facing the threat of extinction, but there were signs of recovery for some. In 2011, most species of tuna were considered to be at serious risk of extinction. With 6 mil- lion tonnes thought to have been caught in 2019, these are some of the most commercially valuable fish in the world. In this update, the status of sev- en commonly fished tuna species was reassessed and there was good news for four of them. The Atlantic bluefin tuna moved from Endangered to Least Concern and the Southern blue- fin became Endangered rather than Critically Endangered. Both albacore and yellowfin tunas went from being Near Threat- ened to Least Concern. IUCN claims that 'this is proof that sustainable fisheries ap- proaches work, and have enor- mous long-term benefits for live- lihoods and biodiversity.' Imagine A line from John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 'Imagine' has been projected on buildings around the world to mark 50 years since Lennon released his famous song. "Imagine all the people living life in peace" was beamed onto several sites – from the Houses of Parliament and St Paul's Cathe- dral in London to Times Square in New York to celebrate the an- niversary. The line was also beamed on Tuesday night in Berlin, Tokyo and in Lennon's home city of Liverpool, emulating a similar projection campaign organised by Ono 20 years ago. Lennon released the album Im- agine on 9 September, 1971 and its title track has long been con- sidered one of the greatest songs of all time, according to music publications. I must admit that it is one of my favourite songs, not just for the music, but also for the lyrics. I still cannot forget the day I heard the song being sung in Church, with nobody in the con- gregation – except me – noticeng that in the world Lennon asks people to imagine, there will be 'no heaven', 'no hell' and 'no re- ligion too'. 7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 SEPTEMBER 2021 OPINION Where does this leave the Whistleblowers Act? Just as I predicted, it has turned out to be a piece of useless legislation that does not justify the political hype The whistleblowing farce Michael Falzon micfal45@gmail.com Anthony Debono (left) with his wife, former Gozo minister Giovanna Debono