Anti-corruption body Greco to visit Malta a year early

The Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body will be visiting Malta a year ahead of schedule, the Times of Malta has learnt. A spokesman for the Group of States against Corruption, ‘Greco’ for short, said the routine five-year evaluation visit would be held later this year “due to a planning issue”. This, he added, was because a mission to another country had to be moved to 2019, when the visit to Malta should have taken place. The last evaluation visit to the island was made in 2014. Greco’s visit would focus on corruption prevention in respect of the central government, including the top executive and the law enforcement authorities, the spokesman said. Asked whether Greco was concerned with the mounting reports of corruption in Malta, he said that, as was the case in every evaluation mission, Greco would take into account all relevant contextual factors. In its last evaluation of Malta, Greco noted that handling interpersonal relationships and addressing real or potential conflicts of interest were clearly critical challenges. It called for the introduction of proper laws governing rules on gifts to MPs, misuse of public resources, misuse of confidential information,...