As the most recent Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International has reported, Malta’s place in the world rankings for corruption has fallen a massive 10 places, from 37th in 2015 to 47th last year, its lowest ranking since the index began 12 years ago. If it is of any consolation, six other EU states fared worse than Malta: Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia.
There can be little doubt that the release of the so-called Panama Papers earlier in 2016, which exposed the huge sums of money being secreted in Panamanian Trusts by prominent political leaders, oligarchs and businessmen on a worldwide scale, has heightened the perception of corruption globally.
But ‘Panamagate’, as it came to be called, struck even closer to home with the direct involvement of Minister Konrad Mizzi, the then Minister for Energy and Health, and the Prime Minister’s own Chief of Staff, Keith Schembri, in a highly suspicious plan to set up a trust in New Zealand with a shell company in the notoriously secretive jurisdiction of Panama.
Their position was compounded by the discovery that they had opened these illicit accounts within days of their taking up their posts in the new Labour government in 2013.
The way the Prime Minister has handled the situation has added fuel to the flames, fostering the perception even more vividly that corrupt practices had not only probably occurred, but had been deliberately ignored by him.
By his inaction, the Prime Minister became complicit in many people’s minds – both in Malta and abroad – with the shady efforts by two of his most trusted lieutenants either of seeking, at a minimum, to avoid paying their dues as Maltese taxpayers by failing to declare this financial vehicle or, at worst, of establishing these arrangements as the means of preparing to receive nefarious payments into secret Panama accounts at some future date for unspecified services.
The Prime Minister set his face against demanding Mizzi’s and Schembri’s resignations. But coming on top of a number of incidents in his administration – from the Café Premier, to Gaffarena, to sales of medical visas and several others – where the stench of corruption has hung heavily in the air, the perception of increased corrupt practices in Malta has inevitably grown.
The crux, however, is that all these incidents of corruption have come cumulatively on top of several other reports in recent years – for example, involving ministers in the last administration with Swiss bank accounts, the bribery of members of the judiciary and the police and public officials of every stripe. The number of cases exposed have come not in a trickle but a torrent, leading inexorably to Malta’s precipitous fall of 10 places in the world corruption rankings.
Swindling the State and corruption appear to have become a way of life in Malta. Both major political parties are guilty. In opposition, they promise to root out corruption. When in office – as we have seen so blatantly in the last three years – the temptation to get their own snouts in the trough takes precedence over the need to deal ruthlessly with the perpetrators.
There is welcome talk, led by the Leader of the Opposition, of a “Coalition Against Corruption”. But if the damage to Malta’s tarnished international reputation and standing are to be salvaged, all political leaders – but especially Prime Minister Muscat – need immediately to show the statesmanship to declare that corruption in Maltese public life will no longer be tolerated and will be eradicated.
The Prime Minister needs to set an immediate example.