Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1442202
5 NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 12 JANUARY 2022 Ombudsman accuses civil service head Mario Cutajar of undermining him BERNARD Grech has asked the Prime Min- ister to agree on a special parliamentary sit- ting to discuss the Ombudsman's concerns over remarks made by the civil service chief. The Opposition leader referred to a letter tabled in parliament on Tuesday in which Ombudsman Anthony Mifsud described criticism towards his office by the Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar as a "frontal attack". Mifsud said Cutajar's remarks in an an- nual report published last month were an attempt to muzzle his office. Cutajar has refuted the accusation. Grech said both sides of the House should defend the Ombudsman, which is a parliamentary office. "In view of the latest attack on this par- liamentary institution, I am proposing that together we agree on and ask for an urgent parliamentary debate in a special sitting to discuss and address this situa- tion," Grech wrote. He also reminded Robert Abela that both sides have not yet agreed on a name to replace the current Ombudsman whose term ended in March last year. "You know that I put forward a number of names, whom I feel are ideally placed to serve in the role of Ombudsman… until now we have not reached an agreement. I also remind you that the letter I sent you on 11 November 2021 remains unan- swered," Grech said. LAURA CALLEJA OMBUDSMAN Anthony Mifsud has accused Principal Permanent Secre- tary Mario Cutajar of trying to under- mine his office over remarks in a civil service report, stating they were an at- tack on his institution. In a letter to the Speaker and MPs, the Ombudsman said that Cutajar failed to understand the Office of the Ombudsman's role. Mifsud said that Cutajar had implied that the office of the Ombudsman did not follow transparent practices of good governance and that it failed to cooperate with the public administra- tion and caused unjustified delays. Cutajar also claimed that the office employed persons of trust when it was not entitled to and did not base inves- tigations and recommendations on facts. Mifsud said that his office denied these allegations, which he viewed as an attempt to discredit the institution. Moreover, the Ombudsman said that it was regrettable that the claims came from the head of the public service, whose duty is to safeguard the consti- tutional institutions and good govern- ance. Mifsud said that Cutajar needed to understand that the Ombudsman's of- fice was not an extension of the public administration and did not fall under his scrutiny. The office, along with the Auditor-General and the Standards Commissioner, were at the service of the parliament. Cutajar reacts to Ombudsman Reacting to the criticism levelled to- wards him, civil service chief Mario Cutajar said the public administration has put forward proposals so that all constitutional overseeing institutions have "clear, transparent, well-defined, and publicly known procedures about their own standard operating policies along with the recruitment of staff, including consultants and persons of trust". "The Ombudsman's office took a full 31 days to try to justify how the scrutiny of the public administration equates to an exercise in good govern- ance and accountability, while a call for more transparency and accounta- bility on the Ombudsman's office part amounts to a 'direct frontal attack' against this institution," Cutajar said in a tit for tat reply. He insisted the Ombudsman skirted the proposals for more transparency and whether these ought to be includ- ed in the legal amendments the office would like to see implemented in the Ombudsman Act. "Akin to the public administration, shouldn't the constitutional overseers also have deadlines on how long they should take to reply to citizens' cases? Currently, the public administration has been waiting for two to five years on more than twenty cases for the Office of the Ombudsman to provide a definitive reply to act upon. Shouldn't the Office of the Ombudsman have a clear poli- cy to those seeking its services on what complaints can be investigated by the Ombudsman? Indeed, in 2020, a quarter of the cases submitted their case to the Ombudsman without first trying to find a remedial solution from the public ad- ministration," Cutajar said. Cutajar said that at a time when the Ombudsman's recommendations were left unheeded for years there were no utterances against the public administration. "Nowadays, when the implementation rate of the Ombuds- man's recommendations is entirely documented, made public and stands at 98%, the public administration is being recriminated against as being offensive. All 'Governance Action' publications are based on facts and are well-documented, and the public ad- ministration will be more than ready to present Mr Speaker with the docu- mented facts." Bernard Grech wants special parliamentary sitting to discuss 'attack' on Ombudsman Ombudsman Anthony Mifsud (below) has hit out at Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar (left), accusing him of trying to undermine his office • Cutajar insists constitutional authorities must have clear, transparent standards of operation