Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/611961
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 6 DECEMBER 2015 8 News 8 Busuttil's 109 proposals CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The PN leader hits out at Labour's rapid concentration of power and loss of autonomy for public institutions, interference in land policies, clien- telism and nepotism, and "a grow- ing disregard for the rule of law leading to a situation where people are getting the feeling that it pays better to act like cowboys than to be law-abiding citizens." The 51-page document is an ambitious collection of proposals that not only introduce stricter ethics rules for lawmakers and government ministers, but also calls for the introduction of elec- tronic counting during elections, e-voting and distance voting for overseas citizens. The proposals are organised un- der 10 chapters that deal with so- lutions for what the PN says are an "erosion of values and principles" and to introduce a consensual approach in politics and appoint- ments. For example, the President of the Republic is to be appointed by a two-thirds majority of the House instead of by a simple majority. But so will persons appointed to high public office have to face the two-thirds rule: such as the principal permanent secretary, the Commissioner of Police, the Commander of the Armed Forces – whose Labour appointees the PN have been at odds with – the Central Bank Governor, the chief statistician at the NSO, as well as Broadcasting Authority members, the Public Service Commission and the Employment Commis- sion. But Busuttil says he wants to al- low the government two rounds to win a two-thirds majority, and in the failure of such, a simple major- ity would prevail in a third round of voting by MPs. Meritocracy rules Equally scrutinised will be chair- persons, CEOs of public authori- ties and nominated ambassadors, who will have to face a grilling in parliament. The Commissioner for Public Standards – whose appointment is to be discussed in a Bill sched- uled for January 2016 – will keep a register of all public appointments and their remuneration. But importantly, and striking at the heart of Labour's munifi- cence, will be removing MPs from boards of public authorities, agen- cies or positions of trust with the government; force MPs to choose whether they are full-time or part- time MPs; prohibit ministers from retaining their private practice; restrict public appointments to not more than one institution for each individual appointee, with a maximum two consecutive terms in that role; and prohibiting senior party officials from holding posi- tions of trust – a proposal that targets top party men such as La- bour's deputy leader, Toni Abela, who was also granted ministerial consultancies. Busuttil also says he will put women in 50% of public appoint- ments. "Improvements with re- spect to gender equality have been limited under Labour with the number of women appointed to public boards actually decreasing rather than increasing." He also says he will limit posi- tions of trust "to whether they are truly inevitable" inside ministerial secretariats, vowing to end such spurious appointments as a dog handler, watchman and mainte- nance officer being directly ap- pointed by a minister – or the much criticised €60,000 post for a medically boarded out police in- spector after four days of leaving the force. Stricter rules for politicians The PN's ethics blueprint targets Labour's rewritten code, which first made light of ministers retain- ing their private practices – like former parliamentary secretary and surgeon Franco Mercieca – and then proceeded to retain the principle if it would be "in the na- tional interest". In the PN's proposals, a new code of ethics will require ministers to declare conflicts of interest to the Commissioner for Standards; "re- frain from associating themselves with unsavoury characters"; oblige them to declare their spouses' as- sets and refrain from appointing relatives or business partners to public positions; declare all gifts above €150 to the Commissioner;