[WATCH] Minister suggests army grievances board here to stay

Home Affairs Ministry may appeal Ombudsman court decision • Video by Ray Attard

A recent court decision urging the Home Affairs Minister to furnish any and all information requested by the office of the Ombudsman in its investigation into AFM promotions had nothing to do with the grievances boards, according to Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela.

“I cannot go into the specifics of the ruling, but I don’t think the ruling mentions grievances boards in any way,” Abela told MaltaToday, when asked whether he thought the grievances boards should be removed.

The grievances boards were set up early last year to accept requests or complaints from public officers and employees who claim they were the victims of an injustice inside the civil service.  The Ombudsman is considered as the defender of citizens against maladministration, abuse of power and improper discrimination.

Following a press conference at the Luqa Barracks earlier today, Abela said that the court sentence was now being studied from a legal perspective, so that the ministry could determine the next step

He said, that the ministry could ultimately decide whether or not to appeal the sentence: “By law everyone has the right to appeal a ruling.”

In February this year, Ombudsman Joseph Said Pullicino filed an application to the Civil Court, complaining that his office was being hindered from investigating complaints filed by army officers about promotions, salaries and pension rights.

The complaints had been lodged with the Ombudsman by a group of army officers in September 2013, following several promotions awarded to Majors and lieutenant colonels. Several officers complained that they had unfairly lost the promotions to other officers who had less experience, fewer qualifications and lower seniority.

The then minister for home affairs Manuel Mallia had insisted that the Ombudsman had “no jurisdiction” over the army, and wanted to prevent Said Pullicino from pursuing the complaints. Instead, the government wanted the complaints processed through government-appointed ‘grievances boards’.

In a mammoth 69-page judgment, Judge Wenzu Mitoff last week declared that the Ombudsman did possess jurisdiction to investigate complaints about appointments, promotions, salaries and pension rights in the AFM, also declaring that the decision whether or not to exercise his functions under the Ombudsman Act where other remedies were present, rests solely in the ombudsman.

Mintoff ordered the Ombudsman to continue his investigation and ordered the defendants to collaborate with the investigation.