NEWS | Wednesday, 06 February 2008

MSA Chairman not against appointment of NSO head by Parliament

Charlot Zahra

Malta Statistics Authority (MSA) Chairman Reno Camilleri did not exclude the proposal made by veteran economist Karmenu Farrugia that the National Statistics Office (NSO) is turned into an authority and its head is appointed by the House of Representatives in a similar fashion to the Auditor-General and the Ombudsman.
Speaking in a wide-ranging interview published in today’s Business Today (see pages 10-11) Camilleri said: “This is a very interesting proposal and I have to confess that in drafting the present law way back in 1998, that was one of the options that were considered.
“Personally, I was not very enthusiastic about it but I cannot, in any way, object to the spirit or the intention behind it.”

Camilleri explained that having been involved in the drafting of the law, he had consulted 20 legal instruments pertaining to different countries but “nowhere did I find that the Director is appointed by Parliament.
“In our case, the Auditor-General and the Ombudsman are appointed by the House as provided for in the Constitution. One of the reasons being that they may censor even Ministers as heads of the Executive.
“The Director of the NSO has to act in an independent manner but his office is mainly to provide vital information for the proper function of a democratic State.
“Furthermore, our recent experience has demonstrated that even Judges and the Auditor General himself have been subject to criticism.
“Nonetheless, I would not dismiss this proposal lightly and if there is a wide consensus that such an arrangement may contribute to a better image of the NSO, let’s consider it very carefully,” he told Business Today.
Camilleri has been doubling up as acting Director-General of the NSO since the resignation of the previous incumbent Gordon Cordina in January last year following harsh criticism by the Labour Opposition following a revision of GDP statistics.
Asked whether he agreed that the NSO should be independent of the Finance Ministry, Camilleri said that the independence of the office was guaranteed by the law which set up the MSA, which came into force in 2001. “There is no doubt that functional independence and full autonomy from Ministerial interference is guaranteed by our law. In practice, I may say that I was never subjected in any way, either directly or indirectly to Ministerial interference.
“From experience, I can vouch that our legislation is among the best in so far as functional independence is concerned. I may add that the NSO does not release any statistical information to anyone, including Ministers, before publication,” Camilleri told Business Today.
He quoted from the conclusions of a report drawn up by a Eurostat mission that was in Malta in late November last year on the independence of the NSO: “In all interviews carried out, the representatives of the various user groups stressed that they have every confidence in the professional independence of the NSO.”