Standards ruling says statutory deadline cannot be waived

Rule-of-law group Repubblika published a preliminary decision by Standards Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi concerning allegations about Robert Abela’s conduct in 2019. The commissioner concluded that the statutory limitation period prevented an investigation and that the prime minister could not personally waive the deadline. Repubblika argued the decision contradicted Abela’s public claim that he had enabled scrutiny by waiving the limit. The case exposes a gap between political willingness to be investigated and the commissioner’s legal jurisdiction, renewing calls to revise restrictive time bars.