Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1213458
FRESH. FROZEN. FABULOUS. You're done in one at Miracle Foods. SUNDAY • 23 FEBRUARY 2020 • ISSUE 1060 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY €1.95 maltatoday CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF BOLD JOURNALISM WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT/20YEARS COMMENT & ARTS inside our MT2 and MT3 sections maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 FEBRUARY 2020 Theatre Love and jealousy at Teatru Manoel Q and A James Vella Bardon Film Underwater CLASSIFIEDS & COMMERCIALS ARTS • TV • WHAT'S ON maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 FEBRUARY 2020 COMMENT What are we skinning? The arrest of half of Malta's traffic police for overtime fraud. Why are we skinning it? The arrest of half of Malta's traffic police for overtime fraud. There's a lot in there, and it's hardly surprising that the international media has picked it up too. But do you think they would have picked it up on the strength of that 'headline', or pitch, alone? And is that even fair? Context is everything, but before you start banging on the "stop bad- mouthing Malta" drum that has also become a favourite instrument of our Finance Minister recently, do consider that there may be something to the inherent attractiveness of this story, both to 'outsiders' and ourselves. Such as? Granted, the move is precisely the kind of shake-up, or wake-up call, that the country may have needed in the wake of the most politically heady autumn we have had in decades. But the police arresting a large chunk of itself, then being made to investigate that same chunk by proxy, does come laced with a healthy dose of absurdity. Yes, which is why the new Prime Minister's take on the situation also risks coming across as unintentionally hilarious. Exactly, saying that the arrests prove that our institutions are working when they have been made precisely because a large chunk of our institutions weren't working all that well in the first place is a kaleidoscopic hall of mirrors kind of statement. In fact, it's already giving me a headache. But relax, we're back to normality now, as the Prime Minister also pointed out not too long ago. I want to believe that. I want to believe that the country is in a state of normality. But the arrest of 37 police officers doesn't really put my mind at rest. Think of it this way: that's 37 corrupt cops we no longer have to worry about. It may not be all of them, and it certainly doesn't even begin to scratch at the deep-seated structural issues. But it could be a start. For what it's worth. Do say: "One hopes that this mass arrest of allegedly corrupt officers will serve as a legitimate wake up call for both the authorities themselves and the country at large, and be followed up by similarly robust decisions from the top, while never devolving into cheap populism or dangerous authoritarianism." Don't say: "These arrests are deeply, profoundly un- Maltese in every sense of the word. Un-bribeable traffic cops?! How do they expect the population to cope with such a dramatic paradigm shift?!" No 23. Mass arrest of Malta's traffic police EDITORIAL At 100 years, the need for reflection on the Muscat era PAGE 2 JOSANNE CASSAR on the Caruana Galizia public inquiry PG 6 The Skinny Malta, shrunk down Ash Wednesday A two-page special at the start of Catholicism's season of reflection and sacrifice PGS 12-13 "The ongoing public inquiry seems to be placing anyone who remotely criticised or disagreed with Caruana Galizia under suspicion, leaving out the crucial aspect of the national atmosphere which had built up over the years due to the infamous blog" MICHAEL FALZON A tale of two surveys PAGE 7 Labour at 100 James Debono does some soul-searching with its Young Turks PGS 14-15 Mizzi waived €9 million guarantee on hospitals Minister signed terms for waiver on Steward's obligation for €9 million bank guarantee PAGE 5 PAGE 3 Gafà ran Malta's secret migration pact with Libya Why Malta could lose out on a €200 millon grant for its gas pipeline PAGE 4 EXCLUSIVE JOSANNE CASSAR Is the Caruana Galizia public inquiry working? MT2 KURT SANSONE MALTA had a secret pact with Libya to stop migrant boats before they exited Libyan wa- ters and the lynchpin was former government official Neville Gafà. In an interview with MaltaToday, Gafà said he used his contacts in Libya to establish a rap- port with the Libyan coastguard and the in- terior ministry. "I used to receive information of boats departing from Libya and their coordi- nates from the Armed Forces of Malta and would relay this direct- ly to the Libyan coast- guard." Gafà's role as unofficial envoy came on direct orders of former PM Jo- seph Muscat. Between July 2018 and January 2019 alone, around 53 migrant boats were pulled back to Lib- ya by the coastguard. It remains a contro- versial policy, showing Malta actively tried to prevent asylum seekers and other migrants from leaving Libya and find a place of safety, by collab- orating directly with Lib- yan coastguards to pre- vent them from entering international waters and the Maltese search and rescue area. "We averted a national crisis," Gafà claims, de- fending his actions and insisting this was not a pushback because boats were intercepted in Lib- yan waters by the Libyan coastguard. MATTHEW VELLA THE Maltese government was nev- er provided with a €9 million 'per- formance guarantee' from Steward Healthcare, the US company that acquired a 30-year concession to run three state hospitals, because the Cabinet approved a waiver of this ob- ligation. MaltaToday has learnt that after Vitals Global Healthcare had failed to provide a €9 million bank guaran- tee within a month of signing its deal for the hospitals, the Maltese govern- ment later waived the obligation for Steward. In fact, it was tourism minister Kon- rad Mizzi, responsible for the gov- ernment's privatisation arm Projects Malta, who in February 2018 accept- ed a declaration by Steward Malta that its parent company – described as "a group whose annual revenue is approximately $8 billion" – would be able to finance the obligations of its concession. Instead of demanding both VGH and later Steward for the signed bank guarantee, the Maltese government allowed both companies to make do without the guarantee. Former minister Konrad Mizzi Brussels bruising