The recent reports of alleged misappropriation of public funds in government-related projects and offices justifiably led to a public outcry. It is disturbing to learn that during the previous Nationalist administration Maltese nationals were being ripped off as a result of the oil procurement scandal. More than two years have gone by and the Public Accounts Committee is still scrutinising those involved in an attempt to get to the bottom of what happened there.

More recently, thanks to the Whistleblower Act brought in force by the present Labour administration, the ‘works for votes’ scamsurfaced in the sister island of Gozo. Yet, the most disgraceful sham is the practice of procuring inferior concrete to the much-needed Mater Dei Hospital.

Objectively speaking, I am still struck by the outgoing prime minister’s cliché in reference to the oil procurement scandal – “these people have betrayed public trust”. Indeed, whoever was involved and behaved so badly did betray the trust placed in them by the public at large.

To date, this country has no natural resources and, consequently, any democratically-elected government has to rely on the efficient collection of all taxes to finance its social and educational programme.

Within the accountancy profession, a very important distinction is made between tax avoidance and tax evasion.

Tax avoidance refers to the application of all relevant clauses in the legislation to minimise the impact on taxation.

Tax evasion, on the other hand, is tantamount to literally not paying any taxes due just because a citizen does not feel good about paying tax!

The alleged cases of abuse can only encourage more tax evasion and weaken the notion that every citizen should feel in duty bound to contribute to the public coffers. In other words, such cases undermine what the late former finance minister Lino Spiteri referred to as fiscal morality.

Needless to say, the public expects concrete action to take place. On a political level, there are high expectations that the culprits, whoever they are, are brought to account.

A specialised unit of qualified accountants in government departments, agencies and ministries is inevitable

However, no one from thepolitical spectrum has tackled the problem from an administrative point of view.

So, beyond a situation of both political parties throwing mud at each other, is there any action that can be taken to prevent similar instances of wrongdoing from happening again in the future?

One obvious reason behind such bad behaviour is that, for the past 25-30 years, the government has been unable to attract and retain a decent number of fully-qualified CPA-warranted accountants within the public service.

Every CPA warrant holder is loyal to his/her profession and would be bound by professional ethics to be a good steward. In a similar contribution in December 2013, I had emphasised that Mater Dei needs a good steward. We now also know that there wasn’t a good steward to give an account of what happened during the 17 long years it took to build the place.

It is unacceptable and socially unjust that whoever is in power would chase each and every citizen to pay his dues while others find it very comfortable to rob the public coffers.

Illicit practice has to stop. While acknowledging that we are all humans and so subject to succumb to temptation (money does not smell but it does stink occasionally) there is still a possibility of taking action to reduce the likelihood of such incidents from happening again.

Having a specialised unit of qualified accountants, in possession of CPA warrants, in various government departments/agencies/ministries is inevitable. Such a specialised unit would complement the sterling work being carried out by the National Audit Office staff in that prevention is better than cure. Yet, as the English saying goes, if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.

The government has to rethink the issue of remuneration and think in terms of the six-digit salaries that would have to be paid out to such a specialised unit as being an investment.

It would be an investment in ensuring that public monies are spent wisely rather than subsidising someone who would, unfortunately, have forgotten all about fiscal morality.

Ivan Grixti lectures in financial accounting at the University of Malta.

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