The reaction of Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg to a very damning report by the Office of the Ombudsman on a Mepa permit issued to him to build two dwellings in Rabat was astonishing.
He is insisting that the report by the Commissioner for Environment and Planning is just a technical report concerning Mepa and not himself, ignoring the fact it mentions him numerous times and even censures him in the most absolute way, saying he chose a “devious method” to file his development application. On his part, the Parliamentary Secretary claims no wrongdoing and that he acted within the law.
The report points accusing fingers at Mepa, saying it committed such a grave error that it was “sufficient to justify the review of the permit”. Mepa has rejected this accusation.
Meanwhile, the Ombudsman’s report, which Dr Borg claims contains inaccuracies, has been sent to the Commission Against Corruption, which is also investigating the case. One can hardly imagine a worse situation for a budding politician to be in, and yet, resignation or self-suspension is clearly not on his books. Inversely.
When asked by this newspaper why he tried to conceal his identity in the application, he said: “I don’t think you should tell me what to do.” It makes one wonder if Dr Borg has understood that public posts like the one he holds come with public accountability.
His reaction was one of defiance. Not only would he not reply directly when asked if he respected the Ombudsman but he went so far as to say that despite the Ombudsman’s conclusions, he was going ahead anyway with his building project. It was a declaration he was to regret. The Prime Minister said that had he been in Dr Borg’s place, he would not have continued building. In the end, Dr Borg was compelled to stop the works.
The Prime Minister will not move against his Parliamentary Secretary and prefers to await the conclusions of the investigation by the Commission Against Corruption. We have been here before, numerous times, where the Prime Minister prefers to wait for the right moment to move, rather than move when it is the right thing to do.
Like Dr Borg, the Prime Minister has repeatedly referred to “inaccuracies” in the Ombudsman’s report and even said he finds Mepa’s reaction to the report “immensely convincing”. That does not sound like an objective position on the part of a Prime Minister who people expect to remain aloof while keeping a vigilant eye on his ministers.
In failing to take action at this stage, after the Ombudsman report and perhaps even more after Dr Borg’s defiant reaction, the Prime Minister is showing immense weakness and sending the wrong message to his ministers who seem to stumble from one controversy to another. Rather than reining them in, he appears to protect his ministers at all costs, ever lowering the political standards of the country for political exigencies.
Public disappointment and disillusionment in the political class is today palpable, making the Nationalist Party’s proposals on good governance more urgent than ever.
The 29-year-old parliamentary secretary is the new breed that is the Labour Party today. It does not bode well for the future of the party or the government, still halfway through its legislature. Labour is forgetting that it was elected to serve and not be served, to be answerable and not secretive or evasive, and above all to be politically accountable for all its actions.