ATTORNEY GENERAL ORDINANCE

CHAPTER 90

ATTORNEY GENERAL ORDINANCE

To provide for the Office of Attorney General.

29th December, 1936

ORDINANCE XXX of 1936, as amended by Acts: LVI of 1948, XXIV of

1956; Legal Notice 46 of 1965; Acts: XVIII of 1971, LVIII of 1974; Legal

Notice 148 of 1975; and Acts XVII of 1988 IV of 2004 , XXV of 2019 and

XXXIV of 2024.

This Ordinance may be cited as the Attorney General

Ordinance.

(1) The Attorney General shall be the Chief Prosecuting

Officer in Malta having such powers in connection with criminal

proceedings and as may from time to time be by law provided. In

the exercise of his powers to institute, undertake or discontinue

criminal proceedings the Attorney General is to exercise such

powers in his individual judgement.

(2)

Without prejudice to the validity and duration of any

appointment to the office of Attorney General made prior to the

coming into force of this sub-article, when a vacancy occurs in the

office of Attorney General the procedure for the appointment of an

Attorney General shall be the following

(a) The Minister responsible for justice shall establish an

Appointment Commission, consisting of a Chairperson

and not less than two (2) and not more than four (4)

members, to be composed of persons who in his

opinion are respected and trusted by the public and are

technically qualified to examine whether candidates

for the office of Attorney General have the appropriate

qualifications and other merit and suitability

requirements to occupy the said office.

(b) The Appointment Commission shall issue a public call

for applications open to persons who have the

necessary qualifications and experience required to be

appointed to the office of Attorney General.

(c) After examining the candidates the Appointment

Commission shall submit a report to the Prime

Minister, through the Minister responsible for justice,

expressing its views on the eligibility, suitability and

merit of the candidates. In the report the Commission

may either limit itself to giving an opinion on the

candidates or it may rank them in order of preference.

(d) In deciding upon his recommendation to the President in

terms of article 91 of the Constitution, for the

appointment of the Attorney General, the Prime Minister

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shall give due consideration to the recommendations of

the Appointment Commission.

(3) Where under any law the Attorney General is to act or

exercise any power in his individual judgment he shall not be

subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority.

(4) The Officers of the Attorney General when acting under the

direction of the Attorney General in anything in which the Attorney

General is to act in his own individual judgment, shall have the

same protection at law as if the action done or omitted to be done

were an act done or omitted to be done by the Attorney General.

*

Without prejudice to the provisions of article 2 the Attorney

General shall have the following functions and powers

(a) to demand that the Commissioner of Police

(i) investigate any crime;

(ii) give the Attorney General any information about

the investigation of any crime;

(iii) issue any charge for any crime;

(b) notwithstanding anything provided in any other law,

and in his discretion, to prosecute any offence, alone

or together with the Executive Police or together with

any other authority having prosecution powers, or to

assist in the prosecution of any offence, before the

Court of Magistrates whether as a court of criminal

judicature or as a court of criminal inquiry, for which a

person shall have been charged before such court

Provided that for the purpose of the

implementation of what is provided in this paragraph, any article

in the Criminal Code or in any other law which confers a

function or power on the conduct of court proceedings in the

prosecution of offences before the Court of Magistrates in the

Executive Police or in any other authority having prosecution

powers shall be deemed to also confer that function or power in

the Attorney General;

(c)

the decision as to whether a prosecution for a

crime subject to a punishment exceeding the original jurisdiction

of the Court of Magistrates as a court of criminal judicature is to

be commenced shall be taken by the Attorney General

Provided that any transitory measure issued from

time to time in terms of article 1 of the State Advocate Act,

2019 or regulations issued by the Minister responsible for

justice under this article may provide for transitory

arrangements for the implementation of the provisions of this

article. Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing

such transitory measures and arrangements may include

*Came in force on 1st October, 2020. See Legal Notice 386 of 2020.

provisions which from time to time provide that

(a) the powers and functions of the Attorney General

provided for in this article shall only apply to certain

crimes and, or only to crimes liable to imprisonment

for a term as may be prescribed being a term of

imprisonment exceeding the original jurisdiction of the

Court of Magistrates as a court of criminal judicature;

(b) the power of the Attorney General to delegate, subject to

those conditions, orders, reservations, and derogations

which he may from time to time provide, the power to take

the decision to prosecute or to conduct the prosecution

before the Court of Magistrates in terms of this article to

the Commissioner of Police or to any other public

authority having prosecution powers under any law from

time to time in force.

(1) There shall also be officers to be called Deputy Attorney

General and other Officers of the Attorney General who shall exercise

and perform all such powers, functions and duties as may be delegated

or assigned to them by the Attorney General.

(2) In the exercise and performance of the powers, functions

and duties delegated or assigned to them as aforesaid, the Deputy

Attorneys General and other Officers of the Attorney General shall,

unless the contrary intention appears, have the same obligations

and enjoy the same protection and privileges as are by law imposed

on or given to the Attorney General.

(3) The Office of the Attorney General is hereby designated as

a Government Agency and the provisions of subarticles (5) to (9)

shall apply to the said agency.

(4) The Attorney General may also act

through such

contractors as he may from time to time appoint

Provided that such contractors shall at all times act in

accordance with such instructions as may be given to them by the

Attorney General.

(5)

(a) The Office of the Attorney General shall as a

government agency be headed by the Attorney General

and shall be the medium through which the Attorney

General carries out his functions according to law.

(b) The said agency shall be a body corporate having a

distinct legal personality and shall be capable of

entering into contracts, of employing personnel, of

acquiring, holding and disposing of any kind of

property for the purposes of its operations and of suing

and of being sued.

(c) The legal and judicial representation of the Office of

the Attorney General shall lie in the Attorney General

or in any other person who he may designate.

(d) The said agency shall enter into an agency

performance agreement with the Government whereby

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the funding of the agency as well as the tasks to be

addressed and achieved by it are determined

Provided that the Minister responsible for the agency shall,

subject to the provisions of any law to the contrary, be entitled to

give directions in writing to the agency and the agency and its head

shall be bound to observe such directives

Provided further that the provisions of the above proviso

shall not apply where the Attorney General is in accordance with

the Constitution or any other law to act in accordance with his own

individual judgement, in which case the agency is to act according

to the sole directions of the Attorney General.

(6) The Attorney General and the employees of the said agency

shall abide by any Code of Ethics applicable to public officers and

shall, subject to any law to the contrary, have the same obligations

thereunder

Provided that the Attorney General shall with the

concurrence of the Minister responsible for the agency draw up

service values and Codes of Ethics in respect of the agency to

supplement any public service Code of Ethics.

(7)

(a) The Attorney General shall keep proper books of

account in such manner as the Minister responsible for

finance may from time to time direct. Such accounts

shall be audited by an auditor appointed f or the

purpose by the Attorney General with the concurrence

of the Minister responsible for finance and shall

moreover be subject to audit by the Auditor General.

(b) The financial year of the Office of the Attorney

General shall commence on the 1st January and shall

end on the 31st December

Provided that the first financial year shall

commence upon the coming into force of this

subarticle and shall end on the 31st December of the

following year.

(c) The Attorney General shall not later than six weeks

after the end of each financial year present to the

Minister responsible for the Agency the audited

accounts together with a report on the workings of the

agency, which report shall state the manner in which

the agency has operated to fulfil its functions and its

plans for the future.

(d) The accounts and report mentioned in paragraph (c)

shall be laid on the Table of the House by the Minister

not later than six weeks after its receipt, or where the

House is during the period not in session not later than

the second week after the House resumes its sittings.

(8)

(a) The Prime Minister may by direction detail a public

officer for duty with the said agency for such term and

under such conditions as may be established in relation

to the officer so detailed.

(b) The Prime Minister may at any time revoke any such

direction.

(c) Where any officer is detailed for duty with the agency

such officer shall, during the time in which such

direction is in force, be under the administrative

direction and control of the Attorney General, but shall

otherwise remain, and retain all rights and duties as, a

public officer, and for the purposes of any law relating

to government service pensions, service with the

agency shall be deemed to be service with the

Government

Provided that no account shall be taken in

assessing the pensionable emoluments of such officer

for the purposes of any law relating to government

service pensions of any allowances, bonuses or

gratuities paid to such officer by the agency in excess

to what he is entitled to as a public officer

Provided further that during the time in respect of

which such officer is so detailed to perform duties with

the agency, the terms and conditions of his service

shall not be less favourable than those which are

attached to his appointment under the Government

during the period aforesaid. Such terms and conditions

shall not be deemed to be less favourable merely

because they are not in all respects identical with or

superior to those enjoyed by the officer concerned at

the date of such direction, if such terms and

conditions, taken as a whole, in the opinion of the

Prime Minister offer substantially equivalent or

greater benefits.

(9) Any public officer serving in the Office of the Attorney

General on the date of the coming into force of this Act shall from

such date be deemed to have been detailed by direction of the

Prime Minister for duty with the Office of the Attorney General as

a government agency under the provisions of subarticle (8), and

thereupon the provisions of the same subarticle shall apply to such

officer who shall continue to be detailed for duty as aforesaid until

such time as the Prime Minister may revoke such direction as

provided in subarticle (8)(b)

Provided that where the Prime Minister revokes any

direction as aforesaid the officer in whose respect the direction is

revoked shall retain such grade in the public service which he held

immediately before being detailed for duty with the Office of the

Attorney General as a government agency by virtue of this article

or shall occupy such other higher grade which he would have

occupied had he not been detailed as aforesaid.

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(1)

The Attorney General and the Deputy Attorneys

General and other Officers of the Attorney General shall have the

power to administer oaths.

(2) Wherever a law provides that an oath is to be taken before the

Attorney General, such oath may also be taken before the Deputy

Attorneys General or before another officer of the Attorney General,

as delegated by the Attorney General.

No nullity or other legal defect shall ensue when a document

relating to criminal or civil proceedings which is to serve as evidence

of any order, consent, approval or direction given by the Attorney

General is signed by a Deputy Attorney General, or by an officer of the

Attorney General on behalf of the Attorney General.