PD calls for lobbyists register, urges for overdue public standards commissioner appointment

The Democratic Party is calling for a law to regularise lobbyists, whom it says have the job of influencing the running of the country strategically for their benefit or the benefit of those they represent.

In a statement issued today, the PD said lobbyists were “accountable only to their employers, their shareholders or the consumers of commercial business”, and that they “use either money or influence to pave their way”. “PD calls for a bill to regularise this,” it said.

The party also urged that the post of Commissioner of Public Standards - who has to date not been appointed, despite the relevant law having been enacted over a year ago - be established.

“The urgent need for the establishment of the Commissioner of Public Standards has been persistently voiced by the Democratic Party since the bill was enacted in Parliament in March 2017,” PD higlighted, “The Act has not come into law as the legal notice has not been published and the nominee for the position not yet named.”

Turning to the role of MPs, it said people’s representatives in Parliament, on both sides of the house, had certain important responsibilities.

“The government must govern well, and the Opposition has to scrutinise diligently and speak up if the government does not do so,” it emphasised, “We have a political system and a scenario where this is not upheld, as partisan politics prevail over national interests and the common good.”

Politicians, the PD said, must conduct themselves ethically and soberly, and must conduct a social and public life which respects the checks and balances of the four pillars of representative democracy and the rule of law, and which doesn’t allow public office to be used for personal gain.

Malta is going through “very difficult times which are getting darker, with ever increasing overt intolerance”, it said, adding that “power and ethics have clashed”.