When, on Monday, the Prime Minister stood up in Parliament to say he had passed through Msida only minutes before a car bomb exploded there, a few hundred metres away inside Valletta, a different bomb was being ignited: the Panama committee was giving its initial reaction to its fact-finding mission in Malta.

Committee chair and German MEP Werner Langen did not mince words on what he thought of the Panama company opened by the Minister at the Office of the Prime Minister, Konrad Mizzi: “The facts and the situation… would point to a potential case of money laundering but we do not have documentary evidence… We have to dig deeper into this.”

It was anything but an endorsement of the government’s year-long defence of Dr Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri, who also has a Panama company. Despite the long-awaited release of audited accounts by Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri, despite accountants Nexia BT bravely stepping forward on Sunday to claim ownership of the third Panama company, Egrant, and despite the months of preparation the government had to clean up its act in anticipation of the Pana committee visit, the outcome on Monday was messy at best.

Nexia BT chiefs would not appear before the committee – nothing to be proud of there – but they did accept questions in writing.

Dr Mizzi accepted to appear before the committee on condition he would not be recorded, which is incredible to hear from a government minister whose party promised accountably and openness before the election.

But the worst performer of all was Mr Schembri, who sent the committee a letter by hand at the 11th hour declining the invitation. Mr Langen described the refusal a “scandal”. In Mr Schembri’s letter lies the crux of why the government has handled the Panama issue so badly and so aloof from public sentiment.

Mr Schembri said he is not an elected official but someone who holds a position of trust in service of the government. That does not deny the fact that he is a politically-exposed person, whichever way he may want to describe himself, and that there are questions to answer.

He also questioned whether the committee enjoyed a mandate and had sound legal standing, an accusation strongly rebutted by the committee chairman who said they had a strong mandate from the European Parliament and would invite Mr Schembri again to appear in front of it in Brussels.

Then, incredibly, Mr Schembri said it was evident there were those who were driven by insincere motivation and who would stop at nothing and contrive lies and falsehoods to harm the government and the country. Such talk is a sad throwback to the Labour Party of the 1980s and its ‘Malta first and foremost’ slogan, when critics were branded inciters and traitors.

The issue is the Panama companies opened days after the 2013 election. It has nothing to do with legalities but with politics. The government has many times said there is nothing illegal with opening companies in Panama. The Pana committee, on its part, smells money laundering, which makes it a criminal matter. But the police in Malta have done nothing, except for a police commissioner who resigned.

On a similar line, Dr Mizzi claims to have been a victim of fake news and accuses the Opposition of character assassination. Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri seem to think their financial affairs are private and that criticism is a personal attack, if not inciteful.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister looks on, apparently helpless.

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