A piece of inherited Maltese wisdom goes, Mill-kliem għall-fatti hemm baħar jikkumbatti. It is loosely translated as ‘Words come cheap, while actions are dear’.

Nothing has ever proven this statement true as much as the comparison between the pre-election promises we were bombarded with on TV, newspapers, radio and billboards by Joseph Muscat’s Labour Party in opposition, and what has been ladled out by that same party in government.

The signature slogan for Labour’s campaign, Tagħna Lkoll, has become a cruel joke, while the promised meritocracy is being measured on the basis of purely partisan standards. The absurdity of the situation reached its peak with the appointment of an 18-year old in charge of a State security services company, its subsequent waffling justifications and his eventual resignation.

After these 28 months of Labour government, it has become so obvious to everybody, so as to make it practically unnecessary to write about. However such cases that have made it to the news and public domain, although many, are still only the small tip of a very large iceberg.

In my encounters with people from all sectors I am regularly being told about new appointments, transfers and changes of duties that are intended solely as a reward for loyalty to the Labour Party. Positions of trust are sprouting like mushrooms with conditions and perks that have inflated the government’s spending by €37 million a year.

The danger of this is if we fail to realise just what this means, and what it will inevitably lead to. We cannot afford to keep or kick competent and qualified people out of positions. Posts in the wider public service are not a gift or a reward for the individuals recruited, but an allocation of responsibility on behalf of the whole population who should have confidence that these appointments are being carried out in the best and most transparent way for the better interest of the nation as a whole.

The professionally competent are shoved aside to make way for the politically compliant

Besides the daily dealings necessary to fulfil our role as a European Union member state, grasping opportunities and avoiding pitfalls, we are soon going to be tested on the international stage with the success or otherwise of the CHOGM, and the presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2017.

The way that the people entrusted with these key events have been chosen has raised many an eyebrow, and cast serious doubts on the order that the Labour government places its priorities between the national interest of presenting ourselves as a competent and well-organised country on the international stage, and settling of pre-electoral debts by the awarding of (un)just desserts.

And even more tragically, it is not just these well-publicised appointments that are being based on the criterion of partisan allegiance. Indiscriminate transfers in the health and education sectors will have their knock-on effect on the level of service enjoyed by the public in general, while the replacement of competent people by political lackeys in our diplomatic representations is a recipe for disaster.

The negative effects of all of this will soon start to bear rotten fruit, and I am sure that we shall continue to be regaled with yet more stories of the messes and outright corruption that are inevitable when the professionally competent are shoved aside to make way for the politically compliant.

The true measure of meritocracy is competence. The first question that needs to be answered prior to any allocation of any position or job is whether or not you have the competence to carry it out. You are either competent or you are not, and next comes the selection which should be on the basis of the most competent among the competent.

Making competence irrelevant, across the board, in the allocation of positions within the public service is not the way forward. It will destroy the credibility of public institutions, undermine trust in public services and erode away at the public finances.

It also shows up, for what it is, the Tagħna Lkoll pre-electoral mantra numbingly repeated with such zest to be what it is – a lie.

@RobertaMetsola

Roberta Metsola is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament and Shadow Minister for EU and Foreign Affairs.