Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1480753
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 2 OCTOBER 2022 8 INTERVIEW 'A culture change that needs to happen' Last Tuesday, the OECD issued its latest report on the subject of 'ethics rules for public offi- cials and appointees in Malta': its fourth such report since 2018, when the Standards Commission was first set up. At a glance, it appears that the OECD's original recommenda- tions have yet to be implement- ed, four years later. Meanwhile, there has been no replacement of George Hyzler as Standards Commissioner: despite the face that his term expired earlier this year. How does the OECD interpret these apparent de- lays? Are you concernedthat the Maltese government may be deliberately dragging its feet on this issue? First of all, I wouldn't say that there's been a 'delay', as such. It is more a case that the project is still ongoing; and to be upfront, there is still another report to come. We have a fifth report in the pipeline: this time about conflicts of interest, and the as- sets-declaration system. So I can appreciate that the Maltese government would have an interest in waiting until all of those reports come out, in order to have a full picture of what the OECD is recommending, to ad- just the ethics and intergrity sys- tem in Malta. From our end, then, I wouldn't say that we're concerned, yet, that there hasn't been any pro- gress. I think our focus, and our message to the government, is that we are ready to support with the implementation in any way we can. We're ready to answer questions; we're ready to help work through the different rec- ommendations that we've made; and we still have almost a full year of the project left, to answer those questions, and provide the necessary support. Right now, however, we are not worried. What about the 'progress' (if any) that has been made to date? For example: since the Standards Commission was set up in 2018, it has handled countless complaints about unethical behaviour by MPs. But George Hyzler himself ad- mitted that: "Once I decide that there has been wrongdoing… it is up to Parliament to de- cide whether or not to impose any disciplinary actions." This has earned the Commission a reputation for 'toothlessness'. Isn't there some truth to that criticism? Well, the challenge involved in setting up an institution that is responsible for looking at integ- rity and ethics violations, com- mitted by elected officials, is that there is a balance of power that you have to be very careful not to cross. I think the way that the system has been set up in Malta – and we've seen this elsewhere – aims to respect that balance of pow- er; it aims to ensure that citizens are the ones who ultimately hold their elected officials accounta- ble. Now: whether it's 'toothless or not', I think there are some chal- lenges with the current system in Malta; and this is what we looked at extensively in our report, spe- cifically with regard to Parlia- ment's Standards Committee. To us, it is very clear that the current set-up is not working well: even though it was designed in such a way, to deal with the issue of po- larisation; and we can appreciate the thought that went into the design. But one of our recommenda- tions was to add lay-members to the Committee – and to poten- tially explore a different chair, who would be more independent – so that you can get over some of these deadlocks we are seeing. The current chair of the Stand- ards Committee happens to be Anglu Farrugia: a former La- bour minister, who also dou- bles up as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Does your concern with his independence (or otherwise) arise just from his political background? Or is it specifically directed at how he has so far carried out his du- ties, in that position? There are obviously concerns, that we noted in the report, con- sidering when the chair did not use his casting vote in a case involving former minister Car- melo Abela. This is, I think, the role of the chair, in such circum- stances. So, to explore other ways in which that function could be more effective, we proposed that the person to occupy that role should ideally come from the ju- diciary: or a similar position of impartiality. But to come back to your ques- tion about sanctions: this is something I would agree with the Commissioner on. The role of the Commissioner is not to issue sanctions. I think one way to increase transparency in the system, would be to empower the Commissioner to recommend sanctions... But isn't that already the case? Yes, but there also need to be more options for sanctions avail- able to the Commissiob. I think the current options are quite lim- ited. It's another area we looked at in the report: how to strength- en the types of sanctions that could be recommended. But again, I would want to re- spect that balance of power, to ensure that it's not an independ- ent body, sanctioning those who are meant to be independent, and upholding the executive. It's a very tricky balance to achieve... It appears to be trickier in Malta than elsewhere, though. In pre- senting the report, you your- self said that "the small size of Malta, and the fact that many MP's are part time workers, makes this a unique problem". And when I interviewed him in 2020, Hyzler admitted to be- ing 'reluctant' to even recom- mend sanctions, because they would invariably be interpreted through the prism of his own political background. Was this a problem for the OECD, when it came to drawing up the report? I think it's interesting that – as you rightly say – it's 'trickier in Malta'. When we look at good practice in other countries, we don't see a similar set-up: where- Carissa Munro from the OECD explains the process of consultation that led to the creation of standards guidelines necessary for a new culture change in the Maltese political class Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt