[WATCH] Labour MP blames Simon Busuttil for Malta’s drop in corruption rating

Labour MPs brush off Malta drop in global corruption index

The strategies employed by former PN leader Simon Busuttil to win power have hurt Malta’s reputation, and affected the country’s corruption perceptions ranking, Robert Abela said.

The Labour MP was asked about whether he felt it was worrying that Malta had registered its sharpest decline in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, which was published today. He said that he didn’t think the country’s ranking was something to be ashamed of, but that the government had “taken note” of it.

Abela - who was fielding question from journalists after a press conference on the court's decision rejecting an attempt by Busuttil to revive a call into the Daphne Project revelations - said that, as evidenced by an explainer on TI’s website, one of the main factors influencing the index rankings is the effect of the “rise in political candidates running on a populist platform who seek to undermine democratic institutions and push anti-democratic agendas”.

“This is the strategy which Busuttil and other members of the Opposition are using,” he said, “And it confirms how badly such strategies influence a country’s performance on the index.”

“This is why I appeal to Busuttil to stop harming our country.”

He emphasised, however, that the government had been actively working on improving on several of the problems connected to Malta’s institutions which were identified recently by the Venice Commission.

“It should be pointed out that the government has already made important changes in this regard, when Prime Minister Joseph Muscat transferred the responsibility for appointing the judiciary from himself to a sub-committee,” he said.

Building on Abela's arguments, Labour MP Edward Zammit Lewis said that many of the issues identified by the Venice Commission dated back to before 2013.

“The Venice Commission made reference to many structures which predate 2013, and which the PN did nothing about in 25 years,” he said, “We are changing several of these, through measures such as the party financing law, the Whistleblower Act and the creation of a commissioner for standards.”