Standards Commissioner unimpressed by Abela’s changes to ministerial declarations

Standards Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi has renewed his strong opposition to government plans to dilute ministerial ethics rules, warning that the proposed changes represent a clear step backwards for transparency and accountability in public life.

Contacted by The Shift following the tabling of amendments to the Codes of Ethics for ministers and MPs by Justice Minister Jonathan Attard, a spokesperson for the Commissioner confirmed that Azzopardi retains his position on these proposals.

The Commissioner’s office pointed to a letter sent earlier this year to Prime Minister Robert Abela, in which Azzopardi expressed “grave concern” over plans to eliminate the long-standing requirement for ministers to file detailed declarations of assets.

Azzopardi, a former Chief Justice appointed to the role by Abela himself, had warned that removing these obligations would significantly weaken transparency standards.

“In effect, this means that ministers will no longer declare their income, and neither will they declare financial investments and bank accounts held by their spouses,” he said. “This is a setback for transparency in public life, and it sends a very negative message.”

The Commissioner also criticised Abela’s continued refusal to publish ministers’ asset declarations for 2024 and 2025, describing the Prime Minister’s conduct as “unacceptable”. Traditionally, such declarations were tabled in Parliament, making them accessible to the public, unlike MPs’ declarations.

Although the amendments were only formally presented to Parliament this week, the changes have effectively already been introduced by stealth for the past two years.

During this period, Abela has refused repeated calls, including through a Freedom of Information request by The Shift, to publish ministers’ declarations.

It also led the Prime Minister to instruct Cabinet members to stop submitting separate ministerial declarations and to file only the standard declaration required of MPs.

For decades, Maltese ministers were required to submit two sets of declarations: a general one as MPs and a more detailed disclosure as members of the executive. The latter included information on income, investments, and assets held by both ministers and their spouses.

This practice, in place for around 30 years, was abruptly halted under Abela’s administration.

The sudden shift followed concerns surrounding the Prime Minister’s own declarations and suspicions of undeclared wealth.

Since taking office in 2020, Abela has consistently refused to disclose his wife’s income and assets, arguing that this was not obligatory. The issue prompted scrutiny from the Standards Commissioner, who had started looking into the Prime Minister’s declarations.

Questions were also raised about discrepancies between Abela’s declared income, based on a prime ministerial salary of around €65,000, and his actual lifestyle, including property investments, a luxury boat, and the redevelopment of a Gozitan farmhouse into a hotel.

The newly proposed amendments would now formalise the current situation by abolishing the requirement for separate ministerial declarations altogether.

Under the new framework, all MPs, whether in government or opposition, would submit the same generic declaration form.

This would effectively lower the transparency standards applied to members of the executive, removing additional disclosure requirements that have historically served as safeguards against conflicts of interest.

The amendments were presented to Parliament’s Standards Committee without prior consultation with the Speaker or the Opposition.

The Nationalist Party has already stated that it does not agree with these proposals and will be opposing them.

However, the government is not dependent on Opposition support to push through the changes. With a parliamentary majority, it can approve the amendments unilaterally.

The latest developmentshe go in the opposite direction of previous transparency recommendations for Malta. An OECD review of Malta’s system explicitly recommended expanding the scope of asset declarations, including more detailed financial information and broader coverage including on spouses, interests and debts.

On the other hand, the Council of Europe’s GRECO repeatedly stressed the need to tighten integrity rules around top executive functions and address gaps in Malta’s framework.