Council of Europe invites Malta to publish anti-corruption probe

Both reports by the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body had made a series of recommendations to Malta, which included a call to toughen penalties against trading in influence and to ensure that political parties publish the source of their donations.

The compliance report on Malta was approved in the 52^nd Greco plenary meeting held between 17 and 21 October in Strasburg.

During the meeting Greco “invited the authorities of Malta to authorise, as soon as possible, the publication of the report”, the minutes of the meeting say.

Greco cannot publish its reports on member states before it is authorised to do so by the member state involved.

During the same meeting Greco approved evaluation reports on Switzerland, Ukraine and Liechtenstein and also “invited” the authorities of these three countries to authorise the publication of these reports.

The Compliance Report assesses the implementation of each individual recommendation contained in previous evaluation reports and establishes an overall appraisal of the level of the member’s compliance with these recommendations.

After the adoption of the compliance report member states will have to give a deadline for implementing each outstanding recommendation.

The Council of Europe’s report on issued in October 2009 recommended that penalties for trading in influence – one of the charges brought against former Chief Justice Noel Arrigo – should be increased “to render the law effective, proportionate and dissuasive.”

The maximum penalty for trading in influence under Maltese law is no more than 18 months’ imprisonment. This sanction was considered low when compared to the maximum sanctions provided for all the other corruption offences in Malta, the GRECO report said.

Greco also called on Malta to re-evaluate Article 117 of the Criminal Code, which foresees a maximum imprisonment of five years for judges bribed to release or discharge someone accused of a crime.

According to the GRECO report, “these rules incorrectly convey the message that these specific categories of bribery offences are less serious than other forms of bribery of public officials.”

In its report on party financing Greco recommended that political parties should declare donations above certain amounts and also state the identity of donors. Besides, GRECO recommended that donations from unknown sources should be banned and political parties should keep proper accounting and auditing systems.