Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1490234
4 NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 18 JANUARY 2023 4 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 In this case, Aquilina was acting in his personal capacity. During the December inter- view, Aquilina had said that court records of testimony delivered behind closed doors in July 2020 by a senior analyst at the MFSA, showed that he had told inquir- ing magistrate Ian Farrugia that his order to submit documents regarding the capitalisation and liquidity of Pilatus Bank had not been followed through. Aquilina followed up this initial bombshell in a Facebook post this morning. "On 29 July, 2020, an MFSA official testified behind closed doors before Magistrate Ian Farruga in the acts of the in- quiry into Pilatus Bank's opera- tions with regards money laun- dering. That day the official had said that the MFSA had failed to submit copies of certain docu- ments to the magistrate, despite his prior order." After Magistrate Farrugia ex- pressed his concern about this, the official in question had explained that the documents were held in a safe, located inside the Head of Banking Unit's office, Aquilina's post reads. Only two MFSA officials had access to that safe, the Unit Head had told the inquiring magistrate: Karol Gabarretta and Ray Vella. The official had also deposed that the documents had been handed over to the inquiring magistrate after Gabarretta and Vella had re- signed from the authority. At that point, the magisterial inquiry into the bank had been ongoing for 20 months. "However, in the past days, I have established two important facts in this regard, which are hereby being made known in the public interest," Aquilina Face- book post reads. "Karol Gabarretta had submitted his resignation from the MFSA on 18 January 2018. The next day he was removed from the key-holder role and from his position as the Head of the Banking Supervision Unit at the MFSA." Gabarretta's employment was subsequent- ly terminated after the 6 month "cooling off" period. "So Karol Gabarretta did not have access and much less control of the safe when magistrate Farru- gia ordered the MFSA exhibited the documents it had about Pila- tus Bank," Aquilina's post reads. Neither did Vella have access, he said. "Ray Vella resigned from the MFSA on 1 April 2019, 4 months after the inquiry into the operation of Pilatus Bank had started. During this period, Ray Vella, together with another offi- cial from the Banking Supervision Unit, still had access to the office safe. It emerges that during those 4 months, Ray Vella had not re- ceived any requests or orders to exhibit documents about Pilatus Bank's operations, not directly from Magistrate Farrugia and nei- ther from his MFSA superiors." Aquilina said that this showed that the MFSA official who testi- fied during the magisterial inquiry had not given the correct informa- tion in his testimony. It also raises a legitimate ques- tion as to who the MFSA officers who obstructed the course of jus- tice were, he said. Aquilina called on the MFSA to explain why the magistrate had only been handed the documen- tation that had been stored inside the MFSA safe, several months after he had given the order. "It is evident that for several months there had been an attempt by the MFSA to prevent the requested documentation from arriving in the magistrate's hands." "The MFSA has an obligation to provide the public with an ex- planation about all this. Someone or several people in the MFSA abused their role, but are still be- ing given shelter by the MFSA." MFSA analyst gave wrong information to Pilatus inquiry, Repubblika president claims MALTA is set to have a new Commissioner of Standards by 6 March after parliament's house business committee agreed to a time- line of votes for the appointment. Parliament is currently discussing a legal amendment to introduce an anti-dead- lock mechanism in the appointment of the standards commissioner. The proposed amendment allows the standards commissioner to be appointed by parliament through a simple majority vote if the nomination fails to garner a two-thirds majority in two previous voting rounds. Parliament will take a vote on the amend- ment after the second reading on Wednes- day, and then there will be a division of votes on 23rd February. When the law is enacted, parliament will discuss a motion to appoint former chief justice Joseph Azzopardi to the post of Commissioner of Standards. A vote on the nomination will be held on 20 February at 7pm. For the nomination to go forward, it would need a two-thirds majority of votes in parliament, requiring cross-party support. If there is no agreement on the first vote, a second vote will be held on 27 February at the same time. The third and final vote, which would only require a simple majority, will take place on 6 March. The law setting up the standards com- missioner is an ordinary law and so gov- ernment only requires a simple majority to change it. The post was set up in 2018 and the commissioner is tasked with investigat- ing claims of ethical breaches by MPs and persons of trust. The post of standards commissioner has been vacant since the end of September when George Hyzler resigned to take up his post at the European Court of Auditors. Talks between Prime Minister Robert Ab- ela and Opposition leader Bernard Grech failed to reach consensus on Hyzler's re- placement. Abela proposed former chief justice Jo- seph Azzopardi but the nomination was rejected by Grech. Given that the appoint- ment requires a two-thirds majority in par- liament, the Opposition's refusal to play ball led to an impasse. Abela has accused Grech of first agreeing to both names only to recant on Azzopar- di's nomination after internal pressure. Grech has refuted the claim, insisting he never assented to Azzopardi's nomination for standards commissioner. In the wake of the impasse, Abela put forward legal changes to introduce an an- ti-deadlock mechanism when no consensus can be reached on the appointment of the standards commissioner. The move was criticised as autocratic by the PN. The legal text states that a two-thirds majority is required in the first vote. If the majority is not achieved, a second vote is taken seven days later. This will also require a two-thirds majority. If no consensus is reached, a third and final vote will be take seven days later and only a simple majority will be required at that point. The Bill also states that new nominations can be introduced before the second and third votes. Malta could have new standards czar by 6 March Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi is government's nominee for the post of Standards Commissioner (Photo: James Bianchi/MediaToday)