NEWS | Wednesday, 19 November 2008

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No commissioner, no comment

Raphael Vassallo
Government’s failure to appoint a replacement for Data Protection Commissioner Paul Mifsud Cremona, who passed away last August, is being used as a pretext for the Commission office not to handle requests for information concerning the Data Protection Act.
Following Sunday’s revelations that the PN secretary-general Paul Borg Olivier had requested government ministries to transfer private citizens’ data to the Nationalist Party, MaltaToday sought the expertise of the Data Protection Commission to establish the legality of this “data sharing” initiative.
Dr Borg Olivier claims that his request was in “full compliance with the Data Protection Act”. However, this is not borne out by the Data Protection Act itself, which establishes that transfer of data to third parties without consent is a criminal offence. Furthermore, political parties are not exempt from this and other provisions of the Act.
Commission official David Caruana told this newspaper over the phone that even though the position of Commissioner was still vacant following the demise of Mr Paul Mifsud Cremona last August, the office was still handling requests for information regarding the application of the Data Protection Act.
However, when this newspaper sent questions via email, the Commission’s technical unit head, Ian Deguara, came back with the following reply: “In view of the fact that to date a Data Protection Commissioner has not yet been appointed, this Office is not in a position to provide any official comments or otherwise on the matter.”
Contacted once again by phone, Mr Caruana admitted that the Commissions had refused to answer our queries, because one of the questions was “too direct”.
The “direct” question was the following: “Under what specific circumstances can the transfer of private citizens’ personal data from a government ministry to the headquarters of a political party, without the knowledge or consent of the data subjects concerned, be considered in compliance with the Data Protection Act?”
Meanwhile, the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry claims that efforts to replace the Data Protection Commissioner are under way, “after the sudden passing away of Mr Paul Mifsud Cremona barely three months ago.”
“Government is in the process of appointing a new Data Protection Commissioner and adhering to the provisions stipulated in articles 36 to 39 of the Data Protection Act,” a spokesman told MaltaToday. “However, the filling of this position at this stage is being made more delicate by the fact that the person appointed as Data Protection Commissioner must also handle requests relating to the Freedom of Information Act, once this becomes effective.”
Articles 36 and 37 also specify that the Commissioner must be “appointed by the Prime Minister after he has consulted the Leader of the Opposition.” However, when contacted yesterday Opposition leader Joseph Muscat denied that any consultation had taken place over the appointment.
As for the Commission’s reticence, the ministry claims it “is informed that the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner is still handling requests for information from the public at the rate of five phone calls a day.”
Evidently, these requests are not as “direct” as the questions sent by this newspaper on Monday.

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