Government authorises publication of GRECO report

The government has authorised the publication of the Fifth Round Evaluation Report on Malta, drawn by the Group of States against Corruption, known as GRECO.

The report deals with the prevention of corruption and the promotion of integrity in the execution of the highest executive functions of the central Governments and law enforcement agencies. GRECO evaluations are made on a regular basis on all countries that are members of the Council of Europe and of GRECO. These evaluations are made on every country, approximately every four years.

It is a GRECO rule that for a report to be published, the country concerned has to authorise its publication. In practice, this authorisation is never given immediately by any country during the plenary meeting which approves the report, since the delegation participating in the meeting generally does not have the authority to do so. In fact, on the same day that Malta's evaluation was concluded, the evaluations of North Macedonia and Sweden were also concluded, and both countries have not published their respective report.

As is always done, the GRECO report makes several recommendations to the country concerned in order for that country to improve its legal and administrative systems in the fight against corruption in the sector which is the subject of evaluation. In fact, if one goes through the reports made to various countries in the course of the fifth evaluation, one finds that various other countries have received similar recommendations to those made to Malta.

The government notes that the GRECO recommendations deal mainly with systems and laws that Malta has had for generations, some of them even before Malta's Independence in 1964. There are, in fact, no recommendations that in a way criticize any laws implemented by this government. It should also be noted that most of the recommendations by GRECO are on the same lines of the Venice Commission's opinion, given last December and which are already being addressed by the government.

The GRECO report also acknowledges that some changes have already been affected since the GRECO delegation's visit to Malta, and which are not included in the report. These include the new functions given to the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life which will impact some of the recommendations made by GRECO.

 

from The Malta Independent https://ift.tt/2CNpF9z
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