The investigation into a suspected racket at Identity Malta has been widened amid fresh allegations of possible involvement by senior officials at the government agency, the Times of Malta is informed.

Sources said new claims reached the police and the Security Service that certain officials instructed staff to issue given residence permits in under 48 hours.

It usually takes about two months for an application for a residence permit to be processed, verified and approved. However, the sources said investigators were being told that some permits, particularly to Libyan and Russian citizens, were somehow issued in less than 48 hours.

There was also allegations of cases when residence permits were issued for a much longer duration than required.

The sources said that in a case just communicated to investigators, a young Russian lady reportedly asked to be given a one-year permit to work as a company director but the permit issued was for three years. This allegedly followed written instructions by a senior official at Identity Malta.

“The police have a tough job trying to untangle the cobweb at Identity Malta,” the sources noted. “No one is being excluded from the investigation and the Security Service is sifting through thousands of residence permits and visas to get to the bottom of this,” the sources added.

The police are not giving any information on the probe on grounds that “investigations are still ongoing”.

This newspaper is informed that three low-ranking officials at Identity Malta were arrested last week and were held for 48 hours for questioning.

The three officials are known to have vehemently denied involvement in the falsification of documents and accepting false statements to issue residence permits.

The arrested officials were recruited recently, one of them about four months ago.

The sources said the interrogation of these officials did not give much new information to investigators because low-level officials only received papers and then passed them on to senior staff for approval.

All three have been suspended from work on full pay and were also released on police bail.

Meanwhile, in a statement last night, the government accused Opposition leader Simon Busuttil of divulging sensitive information which was given during a meeting of the Security Committee.

Accusing Dr Busuttil of consciously or unconsciously mixing up investigations, the government said it was opting not to release information prematurely that would “expose” the Opposition leader, so as not to prejudice the investigations.

The Nationalist Party replied that the government had no choice but to carry out an independent investigation into the confusion and corruption at Identity Malta.