It should never have been left up to the deputy governor of the Central Bank, Alfred Mifsud, to say he is not interested in the post of governor, which is now filled by Mario Vella. It should have been the Prime Minister or the Finance Minister, who were asked on the matter the very day before, to say they were not interested in Mr Mifsud.
The deputy governor, who was once Joseph Muscat’s employer, is facing immensely serious allegations of corruption by his former partner. She is claiming he received bribes when he was chairman of Mid-Med Bank 20 years ago. Mr Mifsud has denied any wrongdoing and said the allegations were motivated by “revenge and hate” resulting from a failed personal relationship.
The issue is not her motive but the shadow that has been cast. Court cases and denials do not address the fundamental problem. Once the accusations were made, and from someone with whom he lived for 24 years and is the mother of his two children, Mr Mifsud’s possible nomination to governor should have been automatically excluded by the government. It did nothing of the sort.
The real question now is if he should keep the post of deputy governor while investigations are under way.
The Prime Minister and the Finance Minister, clearly uncomfortable with the situation, gave hazy replies on Mr Mifsud’s future. It was this government that appointed Mr Mifsud to the post of deputy governor in May last year and he was touted as the next governor. The Finance Minister damped expectations when he said Mr Mifsud was “one among others”. It was a clear hint he may be out of the race.
The Prime Minister urged caution saying the Central Bank is an autonomous institution. That is true. But what is the purpose of autonomous institutions when they keep mum?
The accusations made against Mr Mifsud are immense but there has not been a word out from the Central Bank. It was only through sources that this newspaper learnt that the board of directors were expected to discuss the matter, even though Mr Mifsud’s name was not even on the agenda.
The outgoing governor, Josef Bonnici, would not speak either, incredibly saying it was “premature”. The issue was overripe, rather than premature, and it was an immense disappointment that a governor would have nothing to say on accusations facing his own deputy.
The way the government dragged its feet, giving time to Mr Mifsud to pull out voluntarily, was shoddy and smacked of indecisiveness, a characteristic seen several times before whenever the government hit a crisis.
The most recent crisis was the Panama affair and the secret accounts held by Minister without Portfolio Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri. That issue has never been resolved and will not go away.
The Central Bank cannot make the same mistake as the government with Mr Mifsud. The bank has to solve the problem with its deputy governor and make its position public and clear. Autonomy does not preclude accountability, inversely. This country’s ‘autonomous bodies’, with a few exceptions, have rarely lived up to expectations and it would be expected that the Central Bank would lead the way.
The Nationalist Party is suggesting to Mr Mifsud to suspend himself from the post of deputy governor until the issue is resolved. If he does not, the Central Bank should crawl out of its dark, secret vaults, take a clear decision and make it public.