As James Carville, the well-known strategist for Bill Clinton, so famously said decades ago, “It’s about the economy… stupid the one sure issue which historically makes or breaks governments at elections is the state of the economy.

It is exceedingly good fortune for this government that Malta is currently enjoying an economic boom on a scale rarely experienced despite the government’s own machinations and the many distractions it hascreated for itself.

With practically all other competing tourist destinations in self-destruct mode making daily headlines for the wrong reasons and the cost of energy a mere fraction of what it was two years ago, Malta’s economic planets are perfectly aligned for a bumper result at the end of the year and without a shadow of doubt the government will undeservedly claim credit and put it down to its good management of the nation’s economy.

Nothing would be further from the truth.

Good economic times bring on voterapathy. The usually strident heat of public political debate in Malta is dissipatingrapidly in the face of rolling good times. Add to this the other ingredient of an unassailable parliamentary majority granted to the government by an unsuspecting electorate seeking change, and you have a rampart dysfunctional cavalier government shrugging off scandal after scandal with nonchalant hubris which only those who consider themselves immune from prosecution can enjoy the luxury of experiencing.

The Premier lease affair, the Gaffarena affairs, suspicions of a conspiracy between Mepa and the government behind the Żonqor university land deal, and suggestions of more disclosures on the cards, a minis-terial personal driver blazing away with his gun in broad daylight over a broken mirror, under this government Malta is fast becoming the wild west of southern Europe.

The government was elected on sentiment favouring change, a natural reaction to on-going bickering and disharmony within the previous administration. We are now in the midst of a veritable tsunami of highly questionable dealings by a Labour government; dealings which clearly benefit in a very substantial way certain high worth individuals with apparent historic ties to ministers and very obviously to the very significant detriment of the taxpaying mums and dads, the very rank and file traditional support base of the PL. Surely the mother of all ironic twists to the much lauded principles of social justice and other high-moral-ground utterances many members of this government mockingly flag on their websites.

Thanks to the feral actions of a number of its senior members, that same government which had shown much promise is now wallowing in a sea of apparent wrongdoing and repugnant governance, questionable dealings and absolute lack of accountability.

There is no question that Michael Falzon should have resigned by now. Those in the know are suggesting the Prime Minister has been the victim of bad advice. Bad advice emanates from bad advisers and it is the Prime Minister who revels in political patronage and has appointed senior advisers to his government visibly on grounds of political heritage and expediency, not intellectual merit or merit based on proven performance.

He must demonstrate his determination to stamp out dodgy dealings by his ministers, not by bullying and coercive sabre rattling against those who rightly consider it their duty to bring wrongdoing to light but on the contrary by enforcing accountability and setting up a process of enquiry so independent and incontrovertibly at arm’s length that it will serve as a template for future governments.

Appointing government-related bodies to conduct investigations into suspect government dealings is clearly a highly incestuous farce

To start with, the current system employed in valuing government land by the government’s own architect is outdated.

The valuation of any property is a complex matter which involves a multitude of skills particularly for a place like Malta with land being so scarce. The inputs for professional valuations will include sales evidence, but importantly that evidence is only pertinent if transactions used as a reference point relate to parties completely at arm’s length to the property being considered.

In short, property valuations should only be undertaken by specialist qualified and experienced property valuers, which is clearly not currently the case. But given the purported reliance on this valuation report by the government, any investigation into this whole matter will need to look closely at the report which apparently was the government’s commercial rationale to proceed.

In this case the only sacrosanct sales evidence was the relatively fresh transaction valuing the property for €139,762 registered on February 26, just a few weeks beforethe government acquired the same interest for €822,500.

There can be no more compelling basis for a valuation than the figure of €139,762 given the circumstances and unrelated nature of that transaction.

The quarter interest the government was acquiring was to lock it in an incomplete ownership which normally would have a lowering effect on values until 100 per cent has been acquired.

If sales evidence is to be capriciously discarded for no sensible or clear reason, then a new basis for valuation needs to be demonstrated by the valuer. This is a partial interest in a heritage listed building with no prospect of further development and with minimal revenue and yet this government’s architect, who would have been painfully aware that his political master was signing off on the acquisition, chose to value this interest at €822,500, a rise in value of some 700 per cent in just a few weeks.

It simply doesn’t add up. The valuer then went on to add insult to injury by perpetrating more insane criteria to his methodology and valued the second transaction on the basis of this first transaction which had now become an incestuous and highly related party transaction given it involved precisely the same parties as before, to arrive at a figure which suspiciously looks like it had been pre-ordained by his masters.

The arrogance with which the intelligence of the Maltese taxpayer is being insulted is breathtaking. The Prime Minister is unquestionably bound to make public the valuation report which formed the basis of his decision as the minister responsible. More importantly and without further delay, a skilled Queen’s Counsel or a retired judge from the UK Bar Council should ideally be appointed with all the necessary powers of enquiry to hold an immediate investigation into the Premier Cafe lease and the Gaffarena affairs.

Appointing government-related bodies to conduct investigations into suspect government dealings is clearly a highly incestuous farce, and akin to appointing the proverbial fox to mind the chickens.

Bearing in mind the world’s inquiring tabloids will be in Malta reporting on CHOGM by the end of the year, these matters will no doubt continue to be challenged and it is imperative for the government and particularly the minister responsible for lands, who also happens to be Prime Minister, to either distance himself from this horrendous debacle through an independent inquiry or uphold the time honoured principle of ministerial accountability and resign.

At the end of this year the Maltese Prime Minister will take his traditional place next to the Prime Minister of Britain at the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting.

Britain is the very cradle of our Westminster system of government which profoundly relies on conventions of Parliament including the most revered one of ministerial accountability.

Given this government’s disregard for traditional conventions, a seat next to Mugabe of Zimbabwe might be a more suitable arrangement for Joseph Muscat. The nation’s reputation is at stake.

The presumption that in his capacity as Minister for Lands the PM acted on the advice of his advisor and Parliamentary Secretary Falzon is not an unreasonable assumption. However, there is no clear basis for both the minister and his adviser to remain unscathed following a debacle of this magnitude.

The very people who put both the Prime Minister and his Parliamentary Secretary in their respective current positions are those same people paying for the government’s extravagant largesse, bestowing unbelievable wealth on cohorts of the PL.

Putting partisan politics aside, that course of action can only be anathema to all reasonable minded citizens of any democratic country.

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