More important than entrenchment-enforcement!
The acting Prime Minister, Dr Tonio Borg, has published a constitutional amendment aimed at entrenching the Office of the Ombudsman in Malta’s Constitution.
Dr Tonio Borg said that this proposal had originally been made by Malta’s first Ombudsman Joseph Sammut in his 2003 report. I was quite amused to read also what Dr Tonio Borg said about the proposed amendment, such as that this should be done “in homage to the role of the institution”!
If I remember correctly, Ombudsman Joseph Sammut had also levelled criticism in his reports at the government’s shortcomings, including that of ignoring the Ombudsman’s “recommendations” (since to date, the Ombudsman can only “recommend” but cannot enforce his decisions), on various occasions. For including such criticism in his report, Ombudsman Joseph Sammut was subjected to unjust harsh criticism form the government benches in parliament!
We all know that certain “recommendations” of the previous Ombudsman Joseph Sammut, were ignored not because such a recommendation “could not be implemented” or because, if implemented, could create a difficult situation: as stated by Chief Justice Dr J Said Pullicino, but because the persons involved who had suffered the injustice were of a different political opinion to the present government!
Unless enforcement of the Ombudsman’s decisions is also introduced in the amendment proposed by Dr Tonio Borg, I can only conclude that entrenchment of the Office of the Ombudsman is just a cosmetic ploy to impress voters into believing that this government holds individuals who suffer injustices by the same government and who resort to the Office of the ombudsman in vain, because the Ombudsman’s decisions can be ignored!

Eddy Privitera
Mosta