Whistleblowers’ Act | Law ‘should differentiate’ between accomplice and mastermind

The whistleblowers' law should differentiate between being an accomplice and being the mastermind, "to avoid the big fish from turning tables over the smaller fish", Opposition spokesman for justice Beppe Fenech Adami said this evening.

Fenech Adami was addressing the House of Representatives which is currently debating the whistleblowers' bill. The House has agreed to make it law before parliament rises for its summer recess, with the Opposition insisting that the current bill did not differ much from that present by the previous administration.

Parliamentary secretary for justice Owen Bonnici has however rebutted the claim, insisting that the previous bill was "merely an academic exercise".

Referring to the bill presented by former home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici, Fenech Adami "challenged" the public to compare the two laws.

"But while the then Labour opposition had tore the draft bill to pieces, it has now adopted it paragraph by paragraph," Fenech Adami said.

The shadow minister for justice also criticised the vague wording of the bill which granted "absolute authority" to the minister responsible of justice - in this case the Prime Minister - to revoke protection offered by the whistleblower law. While Bonnici has explained this system would be applied in cases of national interest, Fenech Adami retorted that the act does not mention the words 'national interest'.

"We are faced with absolute authority in the hands of a minister to revoke protection on certain sectors in order to curtail complaints and whistle blowing concerning particular government operations," the MP said.

While pledging the Opposition's support in the country's fight against corruption, Fenech Adami criticised the "working environment within the police which is slowly dilapidating", insisting the officers' motivation to work was slowly being eroded.

Despite reassurances by PN leader Simon Busuttil that he "trusted" the Secret Service, Fenech Adami held the work of the police and that of the security services should not be politicised.

He reminded the House how the operations of the MSS were behind a number of successful criminal investigations. He also said the previous administration had set up various institutions and passed laws to combat corruption.