Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation is Transparency International contact point for Malta

Transparency International has announced that the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation has become the global anti-corruption coalition’s national contact point in Malta.

Until now, Malta was the only EU country where there had never been a Transparency International presence. 

The assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in October 2017 brought international attention to Malta, with the ongoing investigation and separate public inquiry unveiling deep corruption patterns and criminality.

The strong societal demand for stronger anti-corruption capacity and wider rule of law reform led to the establisment of the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation in April 2019. The members of the Foundation’s administrative council are the founders: Daphne’s husband, Peter, and their sons Matthew, Andrew and Paul Caruana Galizia. Peter Caruana Galizia is the first chairman of the council.

Foundation director Matthew Caruana Galizia said: “We are honoured to join this exceptional movement of anti-corruption practitioners and will benefit from their collective experience and expertise. We hope to bring to the Transparency International movement our commitment to investigative journalism, free media, and the use of data and data analysis, which are instrumental in unveiling the truth and uncovering corruption.”

Nacho Espinosa, Transparency International’s Regional Coordinator for Western Europe, said:

“Malta faces the same corruption challenges that are common in many EU countries; and for some of those, such as Golden Visas, Golden Passports and corporate secrecy, the country has become emblematic.

“But Malta also has some specific characteristics, such as a very polarized bipartisan system that leads to patronage and clientelism in the form of corruption and clientelism, which deserve specific attention in advancing the fight against corruption locally.”

Recent reports by the European Commission and GRECO  identified a range of anti-corruption challenges in Malta, including irregularities in public procurement; risks of conflict of interest at various levels of government; shortcomings in the institutional anti-corruption framework; and insufficient accountability for the police and the Attorney General.

Some challenges have been addressed in the institutional reform of July 2020, but activists say these measures fall short.