Auditor General to stay in his post as Parliament votes to suspend deadline to appoint successor
Parliament has unanimously voted to suspend its deadline to appoint a new Auditor General, meaning that Audit General Charles Deguara will – for now – remain in his post.
Extending this constitutional post was backed by both sides of the House as otherwise, the Auditor General position greatly risked remaining vacant by the stipulated deadline.
Due to procedural changes enacted last year in June, all clauses for this Bill were voted on clause-by-clause. All three clauses passed through unanimously. Requiring two-thirds support by the House, each clause required 53 votes to pass; the Bill instead acquired support from all 76 MPs present.
Auditor General Charles Deguara was set to vacate his post on Monday 30 March.
Through this vote, Deguara will remain Auditor General until a replacement is formally selected by the House of Representatives, effectively resulting in how the Chief Justice impasse has been handled so far with Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti, who stayed on earlier this February instead of retiring on his 68th birthday. The same also applies to the Deputy Auditor General, Noel Camilleri, who was also meant to be appointed a successor by next Monday.
The government put forward these constitutional amendments on Tuesday evening. The bill was discussed the following day, in Wednesday’s plenary – from its initial parliamentary debates to the final vote to confirm its enactment.
According to the Constitution of Malta, the Auditor General must be elected by the Maltese Parliament for a period of five years, with the possibility of being voted back in for one additional five-year term (5+5).
After first being elected as Auditor General on 30 March 2016, Auditor General Charles Deguara was unanimously reappointed into this post for another five years. As per the Constitution, Deguara cannot be voted back in again – this time round, a new name must be chosen to succeed him.
The Auditor General leads the National Audit Office (NAO), which is the Office responsible for auditing public authorities and bodies, the Courts, and government funds in general.
In the last 10 years that outgoing Auditor General Charles Deguara occupied this post, the NAO has been widely commended for its work. Some salient reports to have been published during this time include the investigation into the contracts awarded to ElectroGas Malta Ltd by Enemalta, the three reports pertaining to the later-annulled Vitals and Steward hospitals deal, and the government’s rescission of land restrictions on a site acquired by Fortina Group.
Similar to the recent Chief Justice appointment debacle, this pending Auditor General appointment, for the first time also, requires two-thirds backing from elected MPs to be confirmed.
Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti stayed on in his post instead of retiring on 4 February 2026 after both the Labour and Nationalist parliamentary groups failed to reach a consensus on his successor in time. They remain at an impasse. Not only have two nominations (Judge Consuelo Scerri Herrera and Judge Myriam Hayman) been rejected by the Opposition since the start of February, the two major parties are now working on setting up an anti-deadlock mechanism to address impasses that come about because of the required two-thirds majority to appoint a new Chief Justice.
While this Chief Justice issue still persists, the appointment of a new Auditor General was set to face a similar fate.
Why did Parliament have to rush these constitutional amendments?
Prime Minister Robert Abela stated that when the Auditor General and Deputy Auditor General posts were set up in 1997, the fallback mechanism put in place if an impasse arises to select the next Auditor General was for the Deputy Auditor General to serve as the acting Auditor General till a real successor is selected and approved of by the Maltese Parliament.
Abela noted that since the Deputy Auditor General’s extended time in office is expiring on the same day as the Auditor General’s, this fallback mechanism cannot occur. Deputy AG Noel Camilleri was appointed and re-appointed together with AG Deguara.
Hence, the Parliament has decided to conform this mechanism to that of other constitutional posts, such as the President of Malta, the Ombudsman, and Chief Justice, the Prime Minister said. He observed that he would have liked to introduce these changes even if this circumstance didn’t arise.
PM Abela clarified that this amendment is to come into play only when MPs fail to reach a two-thirds consensus on the incoming Auditor General; these amendments do not extend any statutory terms.
Prime Minister Abela stated that if these amendments didn’t go through, then the National Audit Office’s work will be forced to stop. “That means no more investigations, no more reports,” PM Abela said.
Abela said that while some would think that this sounds convenient for the government, he declared that this “would have been horrible for our country’s governance,” thus dismissing this rationale.
“As a government, it can never be acceptable to have a National Audit Office that cannot function. We consistently want the bodies of scrutiny to evaluate us,” he said.
Abela said that having no Auditor General has other serious, and wider, ramifications. For instance, with the Auditor General being one of the entrusted persons within the Judicial Appointments Committee (the committee responsible for appointing judges and magistrates), leaving this position vacant would have also halted this Committee’s work.
The Prime Minister acknowledged that the NAO has garnered great respect from the general public through its work and published findings over the years.
While noting that he didn’t always agree with the NAO’s conclusions, though always respected them, Abela concluded that the discussion on who the next Auditor General and Deputy should be must not be rushed. He finished his speech by stating that “we will allow the Office to work in peace” and that through these implemented changes, “we’ll be investing in the country’s accountability.”
‘The Prime Minister still hasn’t called me to discuss this,’ Opposition leader Borg says
Nationalist Party leader Alex Borg told Parliament that as of Wednesday, despite the Auditor General and Deputy post needing replacing by Monday, in five days’ time, “the Prime Minister still hasn’t called me to discuss this.”
The Opposition leader said that the Prime Minister displayed great unprofessionalism for not even opening a discussion on “something as important as this.”
Borg referenced the Chief Justice appointment struggles, noting “we cannot do this for such important positions.”
“I am here, for this position, for Malta and Gozo. I am waiting for the Prime Minister to call me, for us to discuss it, and for us to reach an agreement,” Alex Borg said.
He stated that such appointments must not be used for political games and for the selection of constitutional positions like this one, “we must not analyse what we can gain or lose, but only what the people can gain and what the country can gain through this important appointment.”
“Cooperation is not one-sided. I need to see that the Prime Minister, when the time comes, chooses the nation over partisan interests, rather than see how he can raise his stature,” Borg said.
Borg added that “when the time comes, [I must see that] the Prime Minister doesn’t wait to see if PL extremists agree with the proposed appointment or not” and called for PM Abela to work exclusively in the national interest.
He told the Chamber that such instances require great seriousness and collaboration between both sides of the House and not attempts to impose any personal or partisan interests. Borg continued that the people want parliamentarians to pull the same rope, instead of working against each other.
“The people expect great seriousness from us two sides. They expect us to do away with the red and blue in our work here, and work in their interest,” Borg said. He added that “it is useless to speak of the national interest if we abandon it.”
On this note, he declared that the PN parliamentary group will be voting in favour of all the proposed constitutional amendments. Auditor General Charles Deguara will therefore remain in his position until a successor is appointed, as will his Deputy, Noel Camilleri, as well as Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti.
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