Standards Commissioner declines Cassola's request to investigate alleged diplomatic passport misuse by Muscat

The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life has declined to pursue an investigation into disgraced former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s alleged misuse of the diplomatic passport that he continues to hold, arguing that he has no jurisdiction over matters involving persons who are no longer members of parliament. 

In his decision on the investigation request that had been filed by Arnold Cassola in March 2023, the Commissioner, Judge Emeritus Joseph Azzopardi, said that it was up to the government to reconsider allowing Muscat to continue holding a diplomatic passport.

Cassola had filed the request after Prime Minister Robert Abela confirmed that a diplomatic passport had been included as part of Muscat’s severance package, arguing that the former Labour leader was neither a public official anymore, nor a representative of the government of Malta.

“This is an unheard-of misuse of power,” Cassola had at the time. “A diplomatic passport is retained and used by officers of the Maltese state or persons working on diplomatic missions for the Maltese authorities. Joseph Muscat is neither of the two.” 

In the decision handed down yesterday, Judge Azzopardi said that, as Muscat was no longer Prime Minister or a member of parliament, the issue did not fall within the remit of the Standards in Public Life Act and consequently that of the Office of the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life.

The retired Chief Justice added that there was “no indication that any person under the Act is complicit in the alleged breach of policy. Therefore this allegation cannot be investigated by this Office.”

“This office understands…that no mechanisms exist that allow the ministry to oversee how diplomatic passports are being used by ex-Prime Ministers and that no records of the movements facilitated by these passports, as dictated by [the diplomatic passport] policy were being kept.

“The complainant also alleges that Dr. Muscat is benefiting from the use of his diplomatic passport in his private dealings. In other words, the complainant is alleging that the diplomatic passport policy is not being followed. 

“This particular allegation is not covered by article 13(4) of the Act because there is no indication that Cabinet had exempted Dr. Muscat from following the policy. Despite all this, Dr. Muscat is no longer Prime Minister or a member of parliament and therefore he does not fall within the scope of the Act as defined in article 3(1). 

There is nothing to suggest that a person subject to the Act is complicit in the alleged breach of policy. Therefore this allegation cannot be investigated by this Office.”

The Commissioner said he was glad to observe that the filing of this complaint had led the office which governs diplomatic passports to promise further steps to increase controls on their use “and that this promise has been kept.”