Seven prison warders will face disciplinary proceedings after a report uncovered how they repeatedly abandoned their posts, opening the lid on administrative mismanagement at the Corradino Correctional Facility.

An eighth prison employee, a major who had “an administrative role”, will be facing separate and harsher disciplinary proceedings that will reflect the person’s level of responsibility, Home Affairs Ministry chief of staff Silvio Scerri said.

Several employees did not clock in when they arrived and left

This major was deemed to be an important link in the chain of abuse.

“This seemed to be an arrangement between friends,” Mr Scerri said when asked if there was evidence of any form of bribery or favours. He stressed that the behaviour never jeopardised safety within prison.

He was speaking during a news conference called at the Home Affairs’ Ministry in Valletta to inform the public about the outcome of a report commissioned by the ministry’s permanent secretary. The report was requested after Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia made a surprise visit to the prison on April 7 and found that some warders who were meant to be on duty were absent.

The report was drawn up by Frank Mercieca, Patrick Murgo and Natalino Attard.

They spoke at length to about 30 witnesses and found proof that the seven officials were often absent when they were supposed to be at work.

The report also identifies a series of shortcomings: several employees did not clock in when they arrived and left, people changed shifts without informing their superiors and some did not have a device needed to clock in for work.

“The report also showed that the prison management only met twice in the span of a year-and-a-half,” Mr Scerri said as he quoted from the document.

The prison had no clear system to record leave of absence and emergency leave, and entries in the emergency leave section were “tippexed” out without any traces of who made the correction.

Over the span of 25 months, some 100 entries were “tippexed” out. Of these, 42 corrected entries belonged to the major.

During questioning, warders said that things were always carried out that way and they just went with the flow.

One man said he sometimes left work to buy medicine for his wife, then went home and stayed there.

Mr Scerri said the report also uncovered a lack of communication across different levels and conflicting orders.

Recommendations included taking disciplinary action against the seven officials, ensuring all prison staff clocked in, introducing a double-checking system for attendance and a proper leave application system. One of the most worrying things that emerged, he said, was that in 2009 the Auditor General had written a report about this and nothing had been done.

“We had a system where there was no accountability… there was no chain of command so no-one felt responsible enough to follow rules as they knew there would be no consequences,” Mr Scerri said.

Things had already started to improve after the minister’s surprise visit, he said, adding that it was now time to turn over a new leaf.

The report will be handed over to the new acting prison director Raymond Zammit to start implementing it. It will be made public after sensitive information is removed. Mr Scerri said that former prison director Abraham Zammit – who resigned following the surprise visit – was a man of integrity and he believed he was not aware of the abuse.

Mr Zammit, who remained a police superintendent, would continue to serve in the police force or in a different institution, he said.

Asked about the next prison director, he said the plan was to have a person respons-ible for operations and another to handle inmates’ reform. However, they might have a superior at the helm.

Mr Scerri said the report would pave the way to a second one that would make recommendations on prison reform. This will be concluded by the end of next month.