Labour MP Michael Falzon’s fiery assault on the National Audit Office in Parliament was not the first of its kind since he was unceremoniously removed from parliamentary secretary in the wake of the Gaffarena scandal. This time around, his speech was replete with references to Nazi Germany.
Mentioning NAO personnel by name, accusing them of partisanship, of political motivation, of following an agenda that is out to destroy people in very much the same way as Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels used to do, was more than a step too far on the part of Dr Falzon.
The Prime Minister needs to put an end to these rantings, something he should have done at the very beginning when Dr Falzon evidently refused to accept the NAO report on the scandal that led to his departure. The former parliamentary secretary may say he is not attacking the NAO institution but it is hardly possible to see it otherwise.
This time, Dr Falzon went even further, comparing (unspecified) local English-language newspapers to the Nazi tabloid Der Stürmer, accusing them of being out to destroy people “for no reason” and of hiding behind unnamed sources.
His adjournment speech in Parliament was a double assault on the integrity of the NAO and the media. A night of the long knives.
The Auditor General replied, denying his accusations and rejecting Dr Falzon’s call for an addendum to be added to the NAO report on the Gaffarena property expropriation, saying the meetings of the Public Accounts Committee did not compromise in any way the conclusions of the report.
And, yet, months after his removal, Dr Falzon still speaks of the need that truth will out. For him, the case is not over and that is worrying. The rest of the country has moved on, he has been replaced by Deborah Schembri and the Land Department that was at the centre of the scandal is being reorganised and turned into an authority. The Gaffarena case is in front of the courts, the police are investigating and Dr Falzon has landed himself a new job, legal consultant with the Grand Harbour Regeneration Project.
What other facts is the former parliamentary secretary referring to when, in the beginning of his speech, he says that he wants all truth to emerge and that justice is done?
It is incredible that Dr Falzon is allowed to keep on assaulting the NAO office, portraying himself as the fall guy and giving the impression that it was all a plot to get him. He takes particular exception to the fact that NAO reports are not signed and calls them ‘anonymous letters’. The suggestion that investigating officers should sign reports was shot down by the Auditor General who said he carried final responsibility.
The very day his removal was announced, an unrepentant Dr Falzon had said there were people who were now “pleased with their pound of flesh”. Months later he has not changed the tune. He still protests his innocence and keeps ignoring his political responsibly for what the Auditor General concluded was “collusive action... in clear breach of the fundamental principles of good governance, transparency and fairness”.
If, in spite of the NAO report, Dr Falzon still feels that an injustice has taken place and that there is more that needs to be made known, then he should speak up. Undermining the NAO by attacking its officials does not help his case at all.