Privileges

The Malta Independent

Privileges

Parliamentary privileges are meant to protect the right of` MP`s` to perform their` duties towards the constitution without fear or favour. Anyone who impedes an MP from the performance of his/her duties meets the sanctions of parliament through the use of privileges.`

When privileges are used to protect parliamentarians from being criticised for failure to perform their duty without fear or favour than the logic of parliamentary privileges is inverted on its head.` This is the public perception of the use privilege against permanent secretary Gauci Borda.` It is sad indeed that parliamentary privileges are being used for the opposite purpose they were intended.

A permanent secretary is a public official paid out of` public funds. His loyalty is to serving the public within the policy of the government. It is clearly government declared policy to administer public funds with judiciousness and transparency and for any suspected abuses to be investigated and accounted to the general public.

Gauci Borda maintains that he did this with full loyalty to protect the public he serves under two different administrations. Not only this was not denied but indeed the National Audit Office confirmed that abuses he highlighted were indeed taking place.

Gauci Borda maintains that from available facts it should be quite possible to establish those who are` responsible for such abuses and for the administration to show that` it is accountable to the general public` for the proper administration of public funds by disciplining those responsible.

Gauci Borda maintained that the police were showing cold feet in pinning down the culprit(s) and that in the review by National Audit` Office` report by the Public Accounts Committee of the House, he sensed that government majority on this Committee chaired by an Opposition MP were using their numbers superiority to close the case without further investigation. Haven`t I seen this before in the review of the privatisation of Mid-Med Bank by the said Committee`

This is not a case where somebody is preventing MP`s from performing their duty.` This is a case where a senior member of the administration` is accusing the members of the legislative body` with unwillingness to perform their duty.

If the MP`s thought they have been wrongly accused their defence ought not to be use of their privileges. Their defence is due explanation to the public of what they are doing to perform their duty to bring to justice whoever was responsible for mal-administration of public funds as confirmed by the National Audit Office. In extreme cases their defence should be a libel suit in Courts of Law. But using parliamentary privileges to use the force of majority numbers to defend themselves from accusation of failing to perform their` parliamentary duties of being accountable to the people is just not on.` It smacks of pre `French revolution feudalism.

It takes a lot of courage and patriotism for Gauci Borda to speak out the way he did. He should not be silenced.` On the contrary he should be encouraged to prove his case withour fear of the use of privileges. For his selfless initiative for serving me as a member of the general public to take care of the tax money I pay,` I offer him my admiration and support.