Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/468421
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 25 FEBRUARY 2015 4 JAMES DEBONO OMBUDSMAN Joseph Said Pullici- no has presented an unprecedented lawsuit against home affairs minis- ter Carmelo Abela and permanent secretary Kevin Mahoney, calling on the law courts to recognise his right to investigate army promo- tions granted in September 2013. This is the first time that the par- liamentary ombudsman has taken the government to court. The case, which started under Abela's predecessor, Manwel Mallia, has been dragging for the past year, with the government refusing to rec- ognise Said Pullicino's jurisdiction over army promotions. The ombudsman presented a judi- cial protest last year. He described as "completely un- reasonable and absurd" the govern- ment's insistence that officials lodge complaints to the President against promotions issued by the govern- ment. This is because any such petition to the President has first to pass through the Minister for Home Af- fairs and the Army commander, both of whom would be directly in- volved in the alleged injustices. In these promotions a number of army majors were promoted to lieu- tenant colonels while a number of lieutenant colonels were promoted to the rank of colonel. Subsequently a number of army officers com- plained to the ombudsman alleging that they had suffered an injustice because officers with less experience had been promoted. The ombudsman started his in- vestigations and asked the com- mander of the army to submit all documentation related to the case but in December 2013 the com- mander informed him the officers should lodge their complaints to the President through the Home Affairs Ministry. The Ministry also insisted that the ombudsman had no jurisdiction on the case, insisting that the officers in question should petition the Presi- dent. The ombudsman referred to an agreement reached with the previ- ous government in meetings, which included former President George Abela, through which army officers were given a choice of either lodging complaints with the ombudsman or to the President. The agreement led to a general order issued on 11 November, 2011, which according to the ombudsman is still binding on the government. Through the judicial protest the ombudsman called on the parlia- mentary secretary to submit all the documentation related to the case. In the lawsuit Said Pullicino not only asks the court to confirm the ombudsman's jurisdiction over ar- my promotions but also to declare the permanent secretary to be guilty of contempt towards the ombuds- man because of his refusal to submit documentation related to the case. Interviewed by MaltaToday in August the ombudsman was wary of taking the case to court, arguing that he preferred reaching an agree- ment with the government as other- wise this "may prolong the case to the detriment of the army officials who lodged the complaint and I have to safeguard their interests." A meeting with Mallia was held in August but no solution was found. News Ombudsman files lawsuit against government MATTHEW VELLA FORMER minister and European Commissioner John Dalli has an- nounced he will file criminal and civil defamation charges against The Times over a report in which the newspaper said that the PN had not suspended either him or former minister Austin Gatt over undeclared money in Swiss bank accounts. "The newspaper has implicated me in a story on Swiss bank accounts so that they suggest that I am involved in this list of bank accounts," Dalli, who resigned his commissioner's post back in 2012 over an anti-fraud investiga- tion, said in a statement to the media. Opposition leader Simon Busuttil told The Times that he would not be looking to suspend former ministers Austin Gatt and John Dalli from the party over overseas bank accounts since their cases did not surface "un- der (sic) his watch". The newspaper said that Dalli had "faced claims – which he has strenu- ously denied – of moving millions of euros to the Bahamas". "I am not shirking responsibility," Busuttil said. "If Mr Dalli is arraigned in court while I am leader, I'll make sure he is suspended from the party. But I can only be judged on what hap- pens under my tenure and not (on) what happened ages ago," he said. Dalli said the report was "mali- cious". "I had written to the European Par- liament offering them a power of at- torney so that they can check with all the world's banks whether I had any bank account with them," Dalli said in a reference to The Times's coverage of his undeclared trip to the Bahamas, in which he claimed he was assisting in the creation of a philanthropic organ- isation financed by entrepreneurs. He added that he appealed to the government to procure the Hervé Fal- ciani list of HSBC Banque Privée cli- ents – given to French police in 2006 and recently leaked to Le Monde and the ICIJ – in a bid "not to leave any space for blackmail and manipula- tion." Dalli was forced to resign in Octo- ber 2012 over allegations that he was aware of a €60 million bribe to reverse anti-snus smoking laws. He denied having transferred up to $100 million in cash in the Bahamas after a story appeared in the Interna- tional Herald Tribune, based on the claims of a Bahamas landlord who rented a holiday home to Dalli's fam- ily. The matter was also sent to OLAF, the EU's anti-fraud agency, to investi- gative. At the time, Dalli said he was pre- pared to give a power of attorney to a trusted individual to make all the checks with any or all the banks in the Bahamas to verify his claims. "I declare that I do not have any bank accounts in any other jurisdiction except in Brussels where I received payments from the Commission and in Malta where my pension payment is deposited," Dalli told MEPs in his letter. John Dalli to sue for libel over 'malicious' reporting on overseas bank accounts PN says Dalli should carry political responsibility for illegal works THE Malta Environment and Plan- ning Authority has rejected an appli- cation to authorise infringements in a Żejtun farmhouse belonging to Pada Builders Ltd, owned by Equal Oppor- tunities Minister Helena Dalli and her husband Patrick. The application was refused by the Environment Planning Commission board, although the case officer's original recommendation for refusal had been changed to allow a permit to be issued. Contrary to usual sittings, no debate or reason was given for the decision to refuse the recommenda- tion to grant the permit. So far, there have been three post- ponements of the hearing. The last scheduled hearing earlier this month had been postponed because Mr Dalli was indisposed. The recommenda- tion made by the case officer was to change from a refusal of the permit to an approval to sanction develop- ment on site that occurred without a permit. Despite a number of MEPA enforce- ment notices on the pre-1967 farm- house in Ramla Road, Zejtun, works on the site have been ongoing. Jason Desira, the farmhouse's soon-to-be owner, had interrupted a PN news conference to say that the Dallis had nothing to do with the works and that it was he who had deposited soil on the property. Dalli in 2013 declared a 99% share- holding interest in her spouse's firm PADA Builders, who were contracted to carry out the works on the prop- erty. Dalli however said she never had any commercial interest in the firm, having declared it in her assets decla- ration "because it fell under the Com- munity of Acquests". The Nationalist Party said MEPA's decision had confirmed the Opposi- tion's stance on the illegality of the works on the house, and that Joseph Muscat was "wrong to stick his neck out" for the minister. "The Opposition put pressure so that the truth could come out since the story broke. Today's decision con- firms how correct the Opposition was in its stance... today's decision leaves no room for Dalli but to carry politi- cal responsibility. This is the prime minister's test to see whether his civil liberties minister will shoulder her re- sponsibility." Ombudsman Joseph Said Pullicino John Dalli – suing for libel