As claims of corruption, sleaze, misdemeanours and impropriety fly with sheer abandon, politicians from the two main political parties are giving the impression that the country is on the eve of a general election. No sooner a claim crops up than another suddenly appears on the radar screen, either exhumed from the time of the past Nationalist administration or stumbled upon now under Labour.

With hardly any time being given for an allegation to be properly investigated, what seems to count is which party is going to taint the other most. The urge to jump the gun is often seen to be irresistible, adding to the public’s growing perception that corruption and sleaze are widespread.

If all the claims that are being brought up are proven, the country has a problem of massive proportion on its hands. Politicians from the two large parties are constantly holding others from their opposite camps accountable for corruption or sleaze under their watch, giving the country a depressing spectacle.

It is practically impossible not to have bad apples in politics. Ultimately, it appears that nothing will ever stop the system from producing those who are more interested in winning and retaining power, luxuriating in glory, or in lining their pockets rather than in doing what they are elected to do, which is to serve.

Voters have a duty to do their best to ensure, in so far as this is humanly possible, that those whom they entrust to represent them are truly worthy of their vote.

With Labour finding themselves with their back to the wall over the way they have moved away from their pre-election undertaking to ensure good governance, it looks as if their only interest is to justify bad practice by pointing out defects of the former Nationalist government, which is precisely what they had pledged to change.

But it is not just rogue politicians who ought to be censured but the country as a whole, as confirmed by the result of a special Eurobarometer survey on corruption carried out in 2013. This showed that as many as 83 per cent of respondents considered corruption to be widespread in Malta. This is even higher than the EU average, which was 76 per cent at the time the survey was carried out.

Interestingly, 53 per cent said corruption was particularly widespread among officials issuing building permits. Many have become experts at circumventing the rules. Welfare fraud has been giving administrators headaches for many years and corruption and bribery in business and in the granting of licences are matters that many take for granted.

In one Eurobarometer business survey, 43 per cent of companies that competed for public contracts said that corruption prevented them from winning. Serious as they are – and some are very serious – the string of cases brought up over the past months still do not eclipse in gravity the bribery cases at the law courts of some years ago. One had even involved the chief justice himself.

However, the situation becomes doubly sad and frustrating when members of institutions that ought to lead by example fail. People expect the highest possible standards of behaviour from them. When the current spate of attacks and counter-attacks by politicians abates, it will be time for them and for the island’s institutions to see how best to strengthen the country’s deteriorating moral fibre.

Right now it would seem that it is in tatters.