Corruption commission to look into Sant’s claims

The Permanent Commission Against Corruption will be looking into claims of corruption made by Alfred Sant in Parliament and if any prima facie evidence is found it will hold an inquiry, the commission’s chairman Albert Manche’ has told The Times.

On Monday, the former Prime Minister, when criticising the way corruption was fought in Malta, mentioned four alleged cases of corruption during the debate on the Bill amending the Permanent Commission Against Corruption Act.

His allegations included a minister getting “Lm60,000 to Lm70,000 as earnest money over a maintenance contract of an important government plant” and a foreign company being contacted to see whether it would contribute to the PN if awarded a tender.

When contacted about the case and asked whether he would be reporting it to the Permanent Commission Against Corruption or the police, Dr Sant said: “Of course not. If you don’t have the smoking gun, what can you do?”

He would not give more details but ruled out reporting the case as he had no hard evidence since time had passed.

Dr Manche’ said the commission still had to look into the claims made by Dr Sant but remarked that often MPs “liked” making allegations without forwarding them to the commission because they might be found to be baseless.

“I’m not saying this is the case, however,” Dr Manche’ said.

The commission will now try to see whether there is any prima facie evidence and proceed from there.

“We need proof. We can’t perform miracles,” the chairman said.

A spokesman for the Nationalist Party said it was Dr Sant’s “moral, legal and political responsibility to pass any information he has to the Permanent Commission Against Corruption or to the Commissioner of Police”.

Asked what the party would do if someone was found guilty, the spokesman said “the PN would expel from the party anybody found guilty of corruption or impropriety in public office.”