Opinion: Nothing to hide?

“Why haven’t the assets declarations of your cabinet been published?” Robert Abela was asked on 6 February. Abela evaded the question.

“I already answered you or your colleagues many times, and there’s a ruling by the Speaker which is very clear, and we are going through a process, which is at an advanced stage, through which we’ll be ensuring more transparency and accountability for all MPs”.

He kept rambling on about different systems, different asset declarations, anomalies, the past, the Standards Commissioner, opposition MPs, government contracts and everything that came to his mind.

He had one simple objective – to deflect that one burning question: Why are you keeping your declaration of assets secret?

“Put your mind at rest,” Abela told the journalists pressing him. “There is no secrecy or evasion of the obligation for transparency… With this reform, we’ll be introducing and strengthening transparency and accountability”.

The journalist wasn’t letting Abela get away with his silly nonsense. “The reform may be good and necessary, but what is stopping you from publishing the declarations of assets from two years ago? Why don’t you want to publish them?”

When the journalist insisted, Abela said: “There is a procedure through which they can be requested from the cabinet secretary, and if that request is made, it will be considered.”

Well, that request was made by The Shift.  And Abela’s cabinet secretary ignored the request.

“The Standards Commissioner told you to publish it,” the journalist insisted.  “The declaration of assets by cabinet members is done for the prime minister to scrutinise it, and nowhere does it state that it should be published,” Abela replied

“So does the Standards Commissioner’s word count for nothing?” another journalist asked Abela. “Not at all. There is the ruling of the Speaker; look at that.” The Speaker’s ruling said he can’t force the prime minister to publish the information.

Abela’s every excuse was pathetic and ridiculous. First, he didn’t want to answer the question because he claimed he’d already answered it. Then, because there’s “a ruling by the Speaker”. No wonder Labour loves the Speaker. No wonder they’re falling over each other to defend him.

Abela’s excuse was that he did not publish the declarations because he was working on an amazing reform that would be so spectacularly incredible that everything would become transparent and everybody would become accountable.

Therefore, Abela can’t possibly publish the asset declarations because he’s got that remarkable reform, which, in early February, was at an advanced stage but about which nothing has been heard since.

Abela then went on to say those asset declarations weren’t for public scrutiny and were not meant to provide transparency or accountability. They’re simply meant for him, the prime minister, to scrutinise the financial situation of his cabinet members.

Asset declarations are an essential tool in a democracy for assessing corrupt practices. This has been the practice in Malta for 30 years.

Robert Abela is the master of contradiction.  First, he waxed lyrical about how his reform would provide transparency and accountability. Then, he decided that asset declarations were for his eyes only.

His entire cabinet is not accountable to us, the voters, the ones who pay their salaries, the ones who keep them in power.  No, no, no. Those ministers and parliamentary secretaries are only accountable to him.

This, of course, begs the question: If those asset declarations are solely meant for the prime minister to scrutinise his ministers, then why does the prime minister have to file one, too?

Apparently, he scrutinises himself. He told the press that he had seen the declarations, including his own, and everything was fine. Right.

He bragged that it was Labour that appointed the Standards Commissioner, yet he has no qualms defying that same Commissioner, rendering his role entirely superfluous.  The Standards Commissioner is the one who should scrutinise those asset declarations.  But Abela didn’t hand them over to the Standards Commissioner.

When the Standards Commissioner told the prime minister to publish those declarations, Abela ignored him.  What’s the point of having a Standards Commissioner when the prime minister continuously pulls the rug from under his feet?  Why have a Standards Commissioner at all when he’s rendered ineffective by Abela’s defiance?

In a rare show of his displeasure with the prime minister, the commissioner published the letter he sent the prime minister, rubbishing Abela’s excuses for withholding those declarations.

“Any reform to the system should not preclude the prime minister from doing his duty and publishing the declaration of assets,” Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi declared.

Those are strong words.  It is Abela’s duty to publish those declarations.  He is failing his duty when he defiantly refuses to do so.

The Commissioner also warned Abela that any reform should involve consultation with the public and the very civil society that Abela was disparaging and attacking. He pointed out that an OECD report recommended that asset declarations should include more information and that this should be the point of departure for any reform.

Yet Abela has too much to hide.  He’s rejected not one but two Freedom of Information requests to publish those asset declarations – one by The Times of Malta and the other by The Shift, which has challenged his refusal by requesting an investigation by the Data Commissioner.

When you must make such an utter fool of yourself to avoid publishing your declaration of assets, you must be hiding some utterly compromising stuff. One thing Robert Abela should have learnt from Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri is that nothing stays secret for long – even if you hide it in remote Panama or New Zealand.