PM Robert Abela’s dig at Schembri: ‘I was uncomfortable with’ Nexia inside Castille

Robert Abela’s predecessor Joseph Muscat will be a backbencher, the new prime minister has said in his first televised interview on Television Malta, and have no role in his new executive.

But he promised opposition to suggestions in press reports that Muscat’s alleged attempt to campaign for abortion as a civil right would encounter his personal opposition, and said that he is not against retaining the Roman Catholic religion as Malta’s constitutional religion.

Abela immediately gave short shrift to decisions taken by Muscat and his former chief of staff Keith Schembri to give wide berth to their private consultants Nexia BT with a ‘desk’ inside the Office of the Prime Minister.

“I was not comfortable with that situation,” Abela, a consultant to the Cabinet and insider at Castille, told PBS editor Reno Bugeja when questioned about the ‘unnatural’ set-up.

“I was uncomfortable with the damage it brought to our national reputation… and you can see that my head of secretariat has credentials that do not lead me into that conflict.”

Abela said he was in favour of any form of transparency that can inform the public of who such consultants and persons of trust serving the government, without the need for parliamentary questions ‘forcing’ out the information.

He set much store by his new Cabinet, in which only five members of the Muscat executive were retained. “When I was consultant to the Cabinet, I noticed the level of discussion on certain policies inside the parliamentary group was higher than that inside Cabinet,” Abela bluntly said. “There were youths and backbenchers not being used to their fullest.”

Abela said his Cabinet was a mix between new ideas and experience. “I will not tolerate mistakes that are not honest… there will be zero-tolerance for such errors.”

Abela also said his first decisions on the Cabinet and the appointment of his new chief of staff, former JobsPlus CEO Clyde Caruana, were decisions “in the national interest”.

He said he expected resignations from government boards, but he faced the difficulty of finding certain talented individuals to fill such positions. “The criteria for such positions should ideally be based on expertise… people who end up being PEPs are also wary of banks’ restrictive practices in their cases.”

Abela, whose legal firm has had a retainer since 2010 with the Planning Authority, says he wants to see the Planning Authority’s appeals board returning to work as soon as possible now that its chairman has been appointed the PA’s executive chairman.

He gave Opposition leader Adrian Delia short shrift on a package of good governance regulations. “I don’t intend taking lessons from Delia, I am humble enough to discuss the matter with him... I’m not saying the changes will not take place, but it will not be through populist point-scoring. Removing the Attorney General at a whim without proven misbehaviour, [just] because the Constitutional Court did not uphold the AG’s request to withhold the Egrant inquiry report, is not justifiable… let’s be realistic.”

Abela said he wants to see the Constitutional Convention take shape, but said he does not want to wait any longer to take decisions.

“I don’t want to implement the Venice Commission’s decisions lock, stock and barrel, but there are changes which I am totally convinced about, in terms of the judiciary.

“I am disappointed that we had to wait for the Venice Commission’s recommendations on the appointment of the judiciary… there is yet more to do about this.

“It is ironic that Repubblika’s case to stop the judges’ promotions is attacking a method that is already far better than that in place before 2013 [but] it is good to anticipate any issues by updating and improving our judicial appointment selection. A prime minister will never go against the advice of the judicial appointments committee, it would be political suicide. If the executive can distance itself even more from the committee’s decisions, then we should discuss this. We must work in favour of more changes, strengthen the system…

“I recognise that Repubblika’s case can have far-reaching impact… but I extend the hand of friendship in changes that must take place.”