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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 15 OCTOBER 2017 Opinion 26 The two members of the judiciary 'outed' by the Commission for the Administra- tion of Justice as being in breach of their code of ethics are vowing they will not step down from their positions as presi- dents of sporting associations. Judge Carmelo Farrugia Sacco and Magistrate Antonio Mizzi, presidents of the Malta Olympic Committee (MOC) and Malta Basketball Association (MBA) respectively, have told MaltaToday they will stay on in their roles, affirming they are not breaking the law. The two members were notified by the Commission of being in breach of the code of ethics over their sporting roles back in August – but the notice was only made public by the Commission earlier this week, two months and a half later. Speaking to MaltaToday, Farrugia Sacco also described a news report by the Nationalist TV station NET as "deplor- able" for its use of continuous footage of the judge alongside Labour leader Alfred Sant, in what appeared to be a deliberate political slant to the report. "It is deplorable. They know they have footage of me with the Prime Minister, the Archbishop, or in my role as a sports official. The footage used was not fair," Farrugia Sacco said. He told MaltaToday he will "not bow down to any pressure" to relinquish his post as MOC president. Yesterday, Magistrate Antonio Mizzi also said he was not breaking any law and that he was fulfilling his duties in Court to the full. "The Code of Civil Procedure already contemplates cases in which a conflict of interest might arise. Judges and magistrates certainly know whether and when they have to abstain or not in case." Farrugia Sacco said he believes the Commission's stand is related to state- ments made by Education Minister Louis Grech back in 2005 over the MOC's criticism of sporting legislation and issues related to the MOC's autonomy and allo- cation of funding to sporting associations. Back then Galea had pointed out he could "not fail to bring to attention the conflict for a Judge or Magistrate who, wearing the cap of MOC president or media director, take a position against an act of parliament in public circumstances outside the judicial process" – referring to Farrugia Sacco and Mizzi (Mizzi was both an MOC director and MBA president). Galea had said the Chief Justice had already asked the two members of the judiciary to conform with the code of ethics, which prohibits the judiciary from 'behaviour that endangers their impar- tiality or independence'. "The govern- ment cannot ignore the Chief Justice's admonishment," Galea had warned. "I think it is related to that," Farrugia Sacco told MaltaToday. "I'm not saying this is linked to the minister. What I am saying is that government had never com- mented about previous members of the judiciary occupying other posts in sport- ing associations before this incident." What might also constitute a conflict for the two members would be in their role when presiding over a case involving association members or even corporate sponsors. Although that in itself, is not exclusively confined to the sporting presi- dents but to any member of the judiciary and their related interests outside the courts of law. In a statement issued by the MOC on Friday, the committee expressed its solidarity with both Farrugia Sacco and Mizzi, saying various persons in the international sports world occupy such posts although they are members of the judiciary in their country. "There is no provision in the Charters of the International Olympic Committee and the European Olympic Commit- tees, Commonwealth Games Federa- tion, Mediterranean Games and major International Federations which excludes members of the judiciary holding such positions," the MOC said. The Commission for Administration of Justice's press statement was issued a full two months and a half after Farrugia Sacco and Mizzi were informed of the decision on 7 August. The Commis- sion declared that their "actions affect the trust (they) enjoy because of (their) position" and that they not respecting the Code of Ethics for the judiciary. The Code of Civil Procedure prohibits members of the judiciary from carrying out any profession, business or trade, or to hold an office of profit, even if of a temporary nature, except for posts in judicial offices or international courts or at the University of Malta. Judges Farrugia Sacco and Mizzi won't 'bow down to pressure' Send your letters to: The Editor, MaltaToday, MediaToday Ltd. Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 | Fax: (356) 21 385075 E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt. Letters to the Editor should be concise. No pen names are accepted. News – 17 October 2007 Injustices in pension rates Various colleagues of mine, former employees of Telemalta/ MaItacom/GO Plc, have recently benefitted from a revision of the Social Security Pension, receiv- ing substantial amounts of euros as arrears for the period 2013/17. I certainly have no objection that the government carried out this just implementation, neither would, I believe, the pensioners who benefitted as well. But an injustice was created by this exercise, and for this to be understood one has to go back 30 to 40 years ago, when the government had thousands of employees on its payroll, with the employees' scales stretching to 99. These Scales were brought down to 20, one to 20, when the government reformed the civil service. The employees on the high scale, i.e. Scale 20 were on the lowest salary, those on 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 were on a higher salary. The employees on Scale 20 contributed less towards the Social Security Fund than those on Scales 3, 4 etc. since the con- tribution is according to one's salary. This is where the injustice lies. Those workers who have benefit- ted from this revision had during their working life contributed less towards the fund than the higher salaried workers and as yet they are now enjoying the same pension of €978. One might conclude this prob- lem affects only the employees referred to above, but actually it affects most of the Maltese workers who are on a higher scale and therefore contribute at the higher end towards the Social Security Fund – they will be receiving the same pension as workers who had contributed less. Those government employees employed after 15th January, 1979, and who therefore have no Treasury Pension – including Judges, Heads of Department, Teachers, Lecturers, all on the higher scales of the civil service – will be receiving the same pen- sion as the employee on the low- est scale, when the contributions of the former were much higher than those of the latter. I appeal to the worker unions and Members of Parliament to take the necessary steps to reform, review, and adjust the capping, since this is the only way that this injustice can be corrected. Once the capping was not adjusted, none of the em- ployees referred to above should have had their pension adjusted and rewarded for contributing less, since this has lost all relativ- ity. We expect justice for all. Francis Paris Zabbar Reclaim land to create space for landfills I just cannot understand why the government sees such an obstacle in Malta's very limited geographi- cal area as far as landfills are concerned. We are told, and I believe this to be so, that we are running out of space for such landfills. Yet the government had promised land reclama- tion, but has not done anything about it. Surely the huge amounts of building industry rubble and debris which have taken up so much of the space made available in landfills, can be put to some use in land reclamation. I cannot understand the reluctance of the govern- ment to identify a marine area which it can reclaim. Surely it could put to some use rubble and stone dumped in the landfills to recover the land from the sea. Too bad if environmental NGOs would oppose such a plan. I agree with the sanctity of ODZ land, but unless we can start building in the air, I see no reason why we should not turn to reclaim land from the sea. We need room and it is not available anywhere except in the sea. Paul Falzon Birkirkara Mount Maghtab: who knows how much construction industry waste is buried there