Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1546781
For Farrugia, accessible decisionmakers can help reduce that bureaucracy. "An in- vestor who can sit across the table from a minister within weeks, rather than months, is far more likely to choose Malta." But Farrugia also insists that access is not the preserve of business. "Access is not the privilege of one sector," he says. Ministers routinely meet NGOs, trade unions, civil society, and businesspeo- ple alike. "That is how a small democracy listens," he says, warning that it would be a mistake to treat one of these conversations as inher- ently suspect while welcoming the others. He points to Alfred Pisani and Albert Miz- zi as examples of businessmen who main- tained working relationships with every Maltese prime minister and a long line of ministers from both sides of the political divide. In this aspect he echoes comments recently made by former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who defended the regular interaction between politicians and major business figures. Muscat specifically men- tioned Corinthia Group Chairman Alfred Pisani, who he claimed maintained a direct line with every prime minister from Dom Mintoff to Robert Abela, arguing that such access for major economic contributors is completely normal rather than inherently corrupt. "Those relationships helped build indus- tries that employ thousands of Maltese families today," Farrugia says. Moving the same circles Marisa Xuereb, an economist and former president of the Chamber of Commerce, approaches the same question from the perspective of business but puts greater em- phasis on the risks created by Malta's small social and professional circles. "In small countries like Malta, politicians, regulators and business owners often move in the same social circles," she says. They may share family ties, have been at school together or have done business together. "This makes corruption, nepotism and regulatory capture, whereby regulators serve the businesses they are meant to over- see, more likely," Xuereb says. The answer, in her view, is not to prevent contact but to impose rules that are "ob- jective, transparent, and consistently en- forced". Yet she also identifies an obstacle to doing so. Those who make the rules may be re- luctant to impose them unconditionally be- cause they "effectively limit their powers", while well-connected businesses may resist regulation because it restricts privileged ac- cess. Xuereb also draws a distinction between genuinely business-friendly government and excessive proximity. "'Business friendly practices can mean an- ything from a genuine reduction of unnec- essary bureaucracy that benefits everyone, to excessive proximity between business owners and politicians," she says. Big business has resources, while poli- ticians have the power to enact laws and grant concessions. "But let's be clear: The ones with the oath to serve the Republic are the politicians," Xuereb says. "So, the re- sponsibility to maintain proper boundaries is ultimately theirs." The Buttigieg test That question takes on a more contem- porary dimension in the controversy sur- rounding Planning Authority CEO Johann Buttigieg, whose private chats appeared to show a businessman enjoying a direct line to one of Malta's most powerful and con- troversial regulators. For Callus, the episode is symptomatic of a much broader failure to confront the re- lationship between political power and big business. "As a starting point, we need to acknowl- edge this grave problem and the growing rot to which it leads," he says, arguing that neither former Prime Minister Joseph Mus- cat nor his successor Robert Abela has been willing to do so. He cites Buttigieg as a case in point. Abela continues to refuse to fire Johann Buttigieg over the PA chief's illegitimate links with big business. In one of the chats, Buttigieg told the busi- nessman: "We can do business whenever you want." Buttigieg, who had previously denied any impropriety, later dismissed the signifi- cance of the message when questioned by the media. He said it had been sent three weeks before he was due to leave his post and added: "In hindsight, I wouldn't make that comment again." Yet the chats reinforced public distrust of the planning regulator, which according to a Eurobarometer survey carried out in 2026 is seen as corrupt by 67% of Maltese respondents. Flapping cowboy doors For Xuereb, one of the key safeguards should be greater independence for regu- lators. "As a matter of principle, politicians should stay out of day-to-day licensing and enforcement," she says. Regulators, she argues, must be independ- ent professionals with the competence and strength of character required for the job. They must also be free from business inter- ests and from ambitions to move into pri- vate ventures in the industry they regulate. This is the problem known as revolving doors. Xuereb does not mention names but she is appalled by current norms. "We actually have instances of flapping cowboy doors whereby it is permissible for people to be regulating and having a finan- cial stake in the same industry at the same time," Xuereb says. The question of who appoints regulators is equally complicated. Xuereb argues that regulators should not be appointed by the prime minister or a sin- gle minister. One possible model would be appointment by a two-thirds vote in parlia- ment, although she acknowledges the diffi- culty of achieving such consensus in Malta. Another option would be an independent panel with expertise in the relevant field. But that raises another problem. "If you are able to assess competence in a particular field, you are likely to be some- how connected to that field," Xuereb con- cedes. Malta's talent pool is limited, both for constituting such panels and for choos- ing regulators. "Hence we keep seeing the same faces in different roles." Put it on the record There is one reform that sits directly at the intersection of these arguments—a public register recording meetings between politi- cians, public officials and lobbyists. One of the problems exposed in the trial was how leading public officials and politicians like the PM's chief of staff communicated with Fenech. For Xuereb, meetings between gov- ernment representatives, regulators and business owners are neither inherently improper nor unnecessary. They can help policymakers develop sensible policies, while businesses can express frustrations, discuss investment plans and gauge how policymakers view those plans. But the meetings should be transparent. "They should be logged in a lobbying reg- ister that is publicly accessible," Xuereb says. She acknowledges that such a register would attract media attention. "There will of course be sections of the media that will spend hours pouring over such registers and speculating about the intentions," she says. But she does not see this as an argu- ment against transparency. "When all such meetings are logged, people will learn how to use lobbying registers constructively." Farrugia himself thinks that the exist- ing rules should provide the framework for these interactions. "The real question, therefore, is not whether politicians and businesspeople should speak to each other, but how those interactions are governed," he says. He points to the Code of Ethics for Min- isters and Parliamentary Secretaries, the Standards in Public Life Act and the code of ethics governing public officers under the Public Administration Act. "The Auditor General, the Commissioner 16 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 SEPTEMBER 2026 FEATURE Cowboy doors, firewalls < FROM PRREVIOUS PAGE Activists from Moviment Graffitti and Friends of the Earth gate-crashed a conference, calling for the resignation Buttigieg after the full extent of damning chats between him and Yorgen Fenech from 2019 were published. (Photo: Former minister Aaron Farrugia and Moviment Graffitti's Andre Callus