By all accounts it would seem the government is fast losing all sense of ethical values. Hard to believe but the Prime Minister sees no wrong in having with him at Castille a top aide whose personal business stands to benefit from a manufacturing plant that an American company plans to set up in Malta.
It did not seem to bother him much either when the Panama Papers revealed that the same chief of staff and, to boot, one of his Cabinet ministers opened a company in a tax haven after Labour won the 2013 general election.
Elsewhere in the democratic world, all this would have been frowned upon and both the minister and the chief of staff would have been kicked out of their posts unless they resigned of their own accord.
Going against the sentiments of most Maltese and of some of his own colleagues in the Cabinet, Joseph Muscat decided to keep the chief of staff in his place and, in what is generally seen as a cosmetic change, stripped Konrad Mizzi of the energy portfolio, only to keep him responsible for energy projects.
But this is not all. The government’s horrendous governance standards went into free-fall when Transport Minister Joe Mizzi defended the chairman and chief executive officer of Transport Malta over the private business he has just set up.
Mr Mizzi, known for past gaffes, excelled himself this time when he was reported saying he was not worried that the Transport Malta’s chairman and CEO had a private business. He was quoted saying: “I don’t see any problem that James Piscopo carries his private business as I couldn’t find any conflict of interest in all this… What (Piscopo) is doing has nothing to do with his role at Transport Malta and so there is no conflict of interest.”
The cherry on the cake was when he compared the agency’s CEO’s role to that of a member of Parliament who was also a lawyer with a private practice. He exclaimed: “Why are you surprised?”
Well, for starters, should not a CEO of such an important agency as Transport Malta dedicate all his time to his job? How could he be a CEO and have a private business at the same time, even if, for the sake of argument, his work as CEO is hardly ever likely to land him in a conflict of interest with his private business, which is that of general management and company advisory services?
The comparison with MPs is no comparison at all.
The government needs to retrace its steps in so far as ethical standards are concerned. The last thing Transport Malta would seem to need is having people with one foot at the agency and another in a private business.
Likewise, even though Keith Schembri’s post as the Prime Minister’s chief of staff is a political one, his position is delicate and could land him in situations that may well be perceived, justifiably or not, to favour his personal business interests.
Dr Muscat must obviously be aware of all this but he does not appear ready to correct his direction.
Maybe he is banking on the premise – false as it is – that it will be hard to lose all the support he won at the last election. That may, or may not, eventually turn out to be true but what is undeniably true is that his government is fast losing its moral and ethical bearings.