Abela refuses to apologise after breaching ethics by appearing in government ad

The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life has concluded that Prime Minister Robert Abela breached ethics when he failed to separate his official role from his political role in a complaint regarding a government advert.

The complaint was published after the Prime Minister declined a proposal to close the case with a written apology.

Similarly, Abela had also refused to apologise for a very similar ethics breach just last year.

The investigation began following a complaint filed on 10 September, 2024, by PN MP Karol Aquilina. The complaint targeted a sponsored Facebook video post titled "10 more measures for the good of the people," which appeared on the official MaltaGov Facebook page. 

Aquilina alleged that the appearance of the Prime Minister and nine other ministers and parliamentary secretaries in the video violated principles such as keeping ministerial roles separate from political roles, respecting the impartiality of the public service, exercising diligence with public funds, and not abusing influence over the public service.

This is not the first time the commissioner's office has investigated complaints regarding government advertising featuring ministers. 

Previous reports by the former standards czar found misuse of public funds for personal publicity, but the parliamentary Standards Committee did not adopt these reports, often due to tied votes and the Speaker citing the lack of legal force of the former commissioner’s 2021 Guidelines. 

The current commissioner believes the Committee has interpreted ethical rules too narrowly, preventing action in such cases, and has previously recommended the guidelines be incorporated into the Code of Ethics to give them legal standing.

As the MaltaGov Facebook page is managed by the Office of the Prime Minister, the commissioner wrote to the Prime Minister on 20 September 2024, for his views. 

The Prime Minister later clarified the advertising cost was €49.96, with no production costs as the video was made internally. In his response, Abela argued the video was factual and non-partisan, serving only to inform the public about government work. 

However, the commissioner stated he was not satisfied with the Prime Minister's explanation. He reasoned that a minister appearing in a government ad for a government measure easily suggests an attempt to gain political or personal credit, which is precisely why the guidelines prohibit such inclusion in paid official ads. 

While acknowledging the government's duty to inform the public, the commissioner argued this does not justify advertisement. 

The commissioner concluded that the video and sponsored post did breach articles 4.9, 4.10, 5.3, and 7.4 of the Code of Ethics. 

He considered it a relatively minor breach due to the video's brevity and the low expenditure involved. He viewed it as involving the misuse of public funds, a failure to separate ministerial and parliamentary roles, and a lack of respect for public service impartiality.

Given the minor nature of the breach, the commissioner proposed closing the case by asking the Prime Minister for a written apology. However, the Prime Minister responded by stating that his position was the same as in a previous case where he did not provide an apology.

Consequently, as the Prime Minister did not accept the proposed resolution, the commissioner is required to refer the case to the Standards Committee.