During his brief stint, a year ago, as deputy leader of the Labour Party, the Minister at the Office of the Prime Minister, Konrad Mizzi, had said his wife would not seek another term as Malta Enterprise envoy in China once her term expired in August. Many, especially in the Labour camp, must have breathed a sigh of relief as that would have brought an end to the controversy over Sai Mizzi Liang’s appointment in 2013, without a call for applications and with a monthly package of €13,000.
That promise by Dr Mizzi, who later resigned from his party post over the Panama Papers scandal, turned out to be untrue. Incredibly, it is as if nothing has happened, like nothing has ever been said. Sometimes, promises by this government appear to be made to be broken, just like that to build a new power plant in two years and the Prime Minister’s promise to resign if it was not. Some months after Dr Mizzi’s ‘assurance’ of his wife’s departure, Economy Minister Chris Cardona had raised eyebrows when he did not exclude the possibility that Ms Mizzi Liang’s contract would be renewed.
He said she had “carried out excellent work as an envoy to Shanghai” but did not specify exactly what. For an envoy who has earned hundreds of thousands of euros in taxpayer money, some more specifics were certainly called for.When this newspaper tried to obtain her performance appraisals, it was stone-walled on grounds the information was confidential. When the Data Protection Officer was called in, Malta Enterprise said it had no such appraisals. As all this was going on, the impression was that Ms Mizzi Liang had left Malta Enterprise to seek new pastures in the private sector. Instead, she was still pocketing €13,000 a month.
When news began to emerge that her contract had been extended, Dr Mizzi, who had had no problem saying she would be leaving referred the press to “the responsible authorities”. Surely, he could speak about his wife?
Last year Ms Mizzi Liang was in Malta at the inauguration of an office by Huawei Technologies in Smart City. She came across as mocking, if not defiant, when she said: “You have finally found me.” It was not funny then, and much less now. She went on to invite the press to judge her by her actions, promising projects in the fields of education, tourism and aviation. Naturally, people were still waiting for those projects when Dr Mizzi announced her departure. Then they simply wrote off her salary and perks as bad debts.
It is incredible that a minister caught out with a secret company in Panama has not learnt the basic, fundamental lessons that emerged from that scandal. They involve openness and accountability. Instead, Dr Mizzi mocks the public and plays cat and mouse while his wife is away from the island pocketing an extraordinary amount of money, by local standards, and with nothing to show.
Taxpayer money is not there for the government to dispense of as it pleases and to whom it pleases. Instead of showing sensitivity to the fact that Ms Mizzi Liang is a minister’s wife and, hence, everything needs to be above board, the government does the exact opposite.
Given that the situation has dragged on for so long with the government showing no sign of redemption but only arrogance, it would be wise if the National Audit Office were called in to assess whether people’s money has been well spent.