Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1500833
NEWS 5 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 7 JUNE 2023 MATTHEW VELLA MALTA has implemented sat- isfactorily or dealt with in a sat- isfactory manner four out of the nine recommendations from the Council of Europe's Group of States Against Corruption (GRE- CO), an anti-corruption monitor- ing board. GRECO's fourth evaluation round dealt with preventing cor- ruption among MPs, judges and prosecutors, and is based on a sit- uation report submitted by Malta back in May 2022. But five recommendations from GRECO however remain non-im- plemented. GRECO had recommended a thorough review of the current provisions of the Code of Ethics for MPs and the Standing Orders related to integrity, ethics, finan- cial declarations and conflicts of interest. This was partly imple- mented with a new draft Code, but the 2022 elections brought discussions on the Code to a halt. "Currently, no tangible progress has been achieved and the Code of Ethics, unfortunately remains the same now as it was at the adoption of the Evaluation Re- port, more than seven years ago. In addition, a new Parliament has recently been elected and will most certainly have its own agen- da. There is no certainty that it will resume this issue," GRECO said. GRECO also recommended that measures be taken to en- sure appropriate supervision and enforcement of the rules on the declaration of assets, financial interests and outside activities. This was partly implemented in previous compliance reports, with a Standards Commissioner with supervisory functions appointed. However, there were no suffi- cient sanctions available for late filing, false filing or failure to file the required financial reports. GRECO did not consider that the "reputational damage" alone was equivalent to "effective, propor- tionate and dissuasive sanctions". "The Maltese authorities do not provide new substantial infor- mation in respect of this recom- mendation. They reiterate their view that the 'Ombudsman-type' sanctions by the Commissioner, that is, to 'name' members of the parliament as being guilty of vio- lating standards of conduct, are a sufficient dissuasive tool whose effectiveness is comparable to that of sanctions. "GRECO notes that... there is some supervision by the Com- missioner, but the sanctions at his/her disposal are not sufficient as already concluded in previous reports. GRECO concludes that recommendation ii remains partly implemented." In other recommendations, GRECO recommended the crea- tion of confidential counselling to provide parliamentarians with ad- vice on ethical questions, conflicts of interest in relation to their leg- islative duties, as well as financial declaration obligations; providing regular awareness-raising activ- ities for members of parliament covering issues, such as ethics, conflicts of interest, acceptance of gifts, honoraria, hospitality and other advantages. While welcoming the Commis- sioner's new function to provide advice to public office-holders and the willingness to distinguish the regulatory from the adviso- ry function of relevant bodies, it pointed out that the process was still at an early stage. "Apart from that, no new achievements have been reported regarding aware- ness-raising activities for MPs." As regards the judiciary, con- stitutional changes have paved the way for reinforcing the inde- pendence, impartiality and trans- parency of judicial appointments procedures. However, induction training programmes for new- ly appointed judges as well as in-service training need to be re- inforced, together with targeted guidance and counselling on cor- ruption prevention and judicial ethics. "In respect of prosecutors, the adoption of a Code of Ethics, including a number of safeguards for the independence of prosecu- tors in Malta has been a most wel- come achievement." The adoption of this Second Addendum to the Second Com- pliance Report terminates the Fourth-Round compliance pro- cedure in respect of Malta. How- ever, in view of the recommenda- tions still outstanding, the Maltese authorities have been urged to do more, and are invited to keep GRECO informed of future pro- gress on their implementation. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt GRECO: Malta yet to tighten scrutiny of MPs' ethical breaches VACANCY Job description Applicant will be expected to carry out duties in; - Maintaining house tidiness - Laundry & ironing - Cooking (is a bonus but not necessary), main- taining food stock levels are adequate and writ- ing shopping lists - Walking the dog occasionally - Caring for baby and helping with feeding and their needs Applicant must have prior experience in housekeeping and caring for children and be fluent in English, polite, trustworthy and professional please. Contact Kristina: 99859603 MAT TH E W AGIUS A Georgian national has been sentenced to 15 months in jail after admitting to burglary charges. Giorgadze Tengizi Mamage- jschwili, 42, from Georgia was arraigned before magistrate Ian Farrugia in connection with a burglary from a house in Mosta in August 2019. Some worth of belongings are thought to have been sto- len during the break-in. During Mamagejschwili's arraignment before magis- trate Ian Farrugia on Tues- day, Inspector Christina Delia charged the man with theft, aggravated by means and value. The defendant was al- so charged with voluntarily causing up to €2,500 worth of damage to the property. The court was told that Mamagejschwili had several criminal convictions abroad. The defendant, who the court was told is unemployed, is currently in pre-trial deten- tion at Corradino Correction- al Facility where he is being held without bail in connec- tion with ongoing proceedings relating to other burglaries. Defence lawyer Noel Bian- co informed the court that the Mamagejschwili would be pleading guilty to the charges, if the prosecution agreed to drop the charge of recidivism. Inspector Delia said the prosecution would not insist on the recidivism charge, ex- plaining that the police had not yet received copies of the relevant documentation from abroad. Finding Mamagejschwili guilty on his own admission, the court sentenced him to imprisonment for 15 months. Man behind €4,000 theft sentenced to 15 months in jail after admitting to burglary Rosianne Cutajar had appeared in front of parliament's Standards Committee in November 2021 where she was reprimanded