We know from the annual reports of the Auditor-General that outstanding annual arrears of revenue run routinely into hundreds of millions of euros, but there is no way for the tax-paying public to know from time to time whether the situation is being addressed and, if so, with what results.
Meanwhile, unscrupulous citizens evade their commitments with seeming impunity. Tax evasion is ingrained and is only one facet of an insidious culture. Considered in the mass, it has assumed the nature of a cancerous growth that calls for surgery.
The time has come to wage war on corrupt practices in an organised, systematic manner on a national scale. Corruption undermines development, dissuades investment and destabilises the democratic process.
Local defences against corruption are by no means tight. The laws of prescription have been providing shelter to criminals as well as politicians, whose misdeeds are detected late in the day or are allowed to drag on interminably until they are lost in the wash.
Active politicians are required to submit declarations of assets in the interests of transparency, but there is no known independent system for the assessment and accurate verification of these declarations.
At the same time, we do not know whether or not the assets of senior civil servants, customs officials and those in charge of public enterprises are monitored in such a way as to satisfy the rules of transparency and accountability and, if so, how and by whom.
Political party campaign financing is not effectively controlled and political party fundraising is altogether beyond the pale of scrutiny and vulnerable to sinister possibilities.
The steady escalation of government expenditure involving major public contracts exposes public officials and politicians to big temptations, necessitating more rigid measures in the interests of accountability.
Nevertheless, allegations of varying degrees of corruption are regularly flung into the air, most of them petering out with the passage of time.
It is bad enough that, when the odour of corruption fouls the air, strenuous efforts are made to change the subject of public discussion. It is even worse that, when serious accusations are made, it is only very rarely that matters are referred to independent judicial investigations. Public accountability is more a myth than a fact, and the culture of resignations is practically extraneous to our system.
The situation calls for all-round political will and a solid determination to break new ground in the fight against corruption. The lack of accountability of politicians and civil servants has long been considered by the World Bank to have played a major role in preventing sustainable development from taking root in a number of countries.
Why is there no provision in Maltese law for major corruption cases to be treated with urgency in the courts?
Why are disciplinary proceedings involving civil servants, and relating to corrupt practices in whatever form, not conducted in public?
What ground rules exist for the holding of workshops and the organisation of surveys, involving senior public sector officials, to raise awareness of the causes and consequences of corruption?
Why have the powers-that-be dragged their feet for so long before moving the necessary legislation to protect whistle-blowers?
The time for a wake-up call to clean the stables seems to be overdue. But nothing has changed, and nothing is likely to change, unless responsible politicians shake off their somnolence and move forward with resolve.
Aristotle famously said that "no notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye", and Aesop said, ahead of Aristotle, "destroy the seed of evil, or it will grow up to your ruin".