Describing a dog handler as a position of trust sounds a little ridiculous on the face of it – even if the government insists the position was being abused – as does the case of a court usher employed under the previous government.

It is difficult to see how the Prime Minister, or the leader of the Opposition for that matter, can reasonably defend these appointments however hard they may try to explain them.

Taking on people in positions of trust at the high level of the administration, or in lines of work that truly call for people that are required to enjoy the full trust of politicians in government, such as in security, is in order. However, extending this justification to cover just about anyone handpicked for partisan reasons is most definitely not.

The issue arose again when replies to a parliamentary question by Nationalist Party deputy leader Mario de Marco revealed that four ministries have employed no fewer than 64 people in positions of trust since the last election. The dog handler made the headlines, a matter that was surely bound to attract the widest possible attention, as was the employment of the court usher last year.

However, it is the widespread resort to the practice of employing people in positions of trust that really ought to attract the maximum attention.

The Ombudsman has already flagged the issue, warning that when these cases become a part of the executive’s style, rather than being isolated and exceptional, they give rise to lack of transparency and accountability.

This is indeed the kernel of the whole argument, one that is getting increasingly lost in the wash of the government’s urge to have its own people in the administration as was crystal clear from the very start of the legislature.

If, as Prime Minister Joseph Muscat claims, the mistakes being made by his government are “procedural”, the blame for this has to be laid squarely at his door because it is his government that has made a wholesale change in the upper echelons of the public service.

A young government eager to get things done, as Dr Muscat has described his administration, needs the expert advice of people in the public service, the same individuals who, for political reasons, were sidelined.

If there are burdensome procedures to correct, let these be changed, but surely this does not mean the administration has carte blanche to act injudiciously, as it is doing so glaringly. If the government considers itself so inexperienced, that is all the more reason to act cautiously as it is taxpayer’s money that’s being spent.

However, not all mistakes committed by this government can be described as procedural. Bypassing its property department in a €4.2 million bailout deal of the Café Premier, for example, is definitely not.

Trying to defend the indefensible, the Prime Minister was reported saying that, unlike what used to happen under the previous administration, people engaged on a position of trust basis had not been employed illegally. In the near future, he warned, he would give more information about what used to take place in the past.

This is an unwise course. Not only did he promise to do things differently but the Opposition will, no doubt, remind him of the time Labour employed thousands of people at Malta Shipbuilding in an effort to buy votes. Moreover, it is an approach that will not take us forward.

What this country really needs to have is greater propriety and responsibility in politics rather than attempted justifications for less.

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