Ombudsman presents lawsuit against government over army promotions

Ombudsman Chief Justice Emeritus  Joseph Said Pullicino has presented an unprecendented lawsuit against home affairs minister Carmelo Abela and permanent secretary Kevin Mahoney calling on the law courts to recognise his right to investigate army promotions granted in September 2013.

The case, which started under Abela’s predecessor Manwel Mallia, has been dragging for the past year with the government refusing to recognise Said Pullicino’s jurisdiction over army promotions.

The ombudsman described the government’s insistence that the officials lodging the complaints against promotions issued by government to the President as “completely unreasonable and absurd.”  This is because any such petition to the President has to first pass through the Minister for Home Affairs and the Army commander, both of which are directly involved in the alleged injustices.

In these promotioons a number of army majors where promoted to lieutenant colenels while a number of lieutenant colenels were prmoted to the rank of colonel. Subseqnetly a number of army officer complained to the ombudsman alleging that they had suffered an injustice because officers with less experience  had been promoted.

The ombudsman started his investigations and asked the commander of the army to submit all documentation related to the case but in December 2013 the commander informed him they officers should lodge their complaints to the President through the Home affairs Ministry.

The Ministry also insisted that the ombudsman had no jurisdiction on the case, insisting that the officers in question should petition the president.

The ombudsman referred to an agreement reached with the previous government in meetings, which included former President George Abela through which army officers were given a choice of either lodging complaints with the ombudsman or to the president.

The agreement led to a general order issued on 11 November 2011, which according to the ombudsman is still binding on the government.

Through the judicial protest the ombudsman is calling on the parliamentary secretary to submit all the documentation related to the case.

In the lawsuit the ombudsman not only asks the court to confirm the ombudsman’s jurisdiction over army promotions but also to declare the permanent secretary to be guilty of contempt towards the ombudsman because of his refusal to submit documentation related to the case.