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2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR Matthew Vella MANAGING EDITOR Saviour Balzan Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 JULY 2020 Secrets and lies Editorial IT could be said that we are living strange days. The Potemkin façade of Maltese optimism, rude economic growth and sun-jaded fatalism hides an underbelly of murder and corruption. Within less than three years, an electorate vastly loyal to Labour in power, is being drip-fed a chronicle of events that bring shame to the Maltese, as well as the previous administration's leaders. With com- pilations of evidence against four men accused of masterminding and assassinating Daphne Caruana Galizia, a public inquiry, the testimony of sever- al witnesses and some pathological liars, a host of magisterial inquiries into corruption allegations, the shadow of yet more graft hanging over the heads of MPs and party leaders, and a Labour Party that is a tad more self-aware of the Muscat-Schem- bri legacy, Malta has cooked itself up a maelstrom of explosive ingredients. We can be positive about the facts printed in the press that the suspicion of corruption is ever-pres- ent in major government deals that were stewarded by the direct hand of the Office of the Prime Min- ister. The latest one is the inflated price paid for the Mozura wind park, with money first loaned for its acquisition by none other than 17 Black, Yorgen Fenech's offshore company; Fenech's umbilical re- lationship to Keith Schembri and his secret Pan- ama companies cropped up too late, alas; the life of one woman could have been saved, one hopes, had a serious police investigation been launched immediately in 2016. It did not. The people in the police corps tasked with that job were unwilling to shake trees. The Attorney General denies having given any go-slow instruction. But there is no doubt that the over- weening influence of Keith Schembri loomed large over the Maltese institutions, and that the alluring image of the Labour project that was prospected in 2013 had seduced many. This newspaper has in the past commented edi- torially that the moralistic anti-corruption drive to short-circuit the democratic process, most egre- giously with the Egrant allegations, may have forti- fied the electorate's resolve to back Labour and its otherwise successful management of the country. That is a question of strategy: bread and butter issues cannot be ignored; neither can the perfor- mance of party leaders be discounted in democrat- ic showbiz. Joseph Muscat had laser-eye focus on both as- pects, with a delivery of material wellbeing cou- pled with seductive rhetoric and the power of con- viction. Labour was a young government punching above its weight. But it hid dirty secrets. When the Auditor General found insufficient justification for the government's decision not to pursue legal action in a bid to rescind the lease on Café Premier in Valletta, through a €4.2 million payment to buy back the 65-year lease on the caf- eteria revealed by MaltaToday a year before, this should have been the first sign of the very rotten state inside the OPM. Then the Auditor General also questioned a "ministerial direction" in a hedging agreement with Azerbaijani energy giant SOCAR. And then there was the €1.65 million expropriation of half a property in Old Mint Street, Valletta, from Mark Gaffarena, in two separate contracts earlier in 2015. 2016 ended with parliament being rushed to approve the land transfer to the Sadeen group before the Christmas recess, in the absence of any tendering procedure. And to that, we have to add the Vitals hospitals privatisation scandal, and the scandalous contracts signed by Konrad Mizzi. All these misadventures have one mark: the Of- fice of the Prime Minister, which conducted these foolhardy missions for no apparent public gain. That the Panama Papers and the 17 Black nexus wrap up these questionable deals by the possibil- ity, that millions could have left the country into offshore bank accounts had it not been for the ICIJ revelations, is the ultimate judgement on the lega- cy of Joseph Muscat. Muscat presided over one of the most carefully choreographed political projects in history, a brit- tle façade of stage-managed, aspirational rhetoric, seducing many with his political brilliance. But he gave cover and defended scandalous decisions that reek of corruption: millions paid to select business groups, who took public land and assets through uniquely-crafted expressions of interest. Strange days? These are scandalous days that could yet reveal more harrowing details of the way government works with its choice business part- ners. Robert Abela may have sacked Konrad Mizzi from his backbench. But it will only be the force of law and justice to deliver Malta from its serious quandary. This cluster of malignant cells could yet metastise into a full-blown bribesville scandal, for the dirty secrets of the Muscat administration are not yet out in the open. 4 July 2010 Abela shoots messenger but silent on allegations of impropriety PRESIDENT George Abela has publicly 'dumped' the former secretary to the Pres- idency Olaph Terribile, revealing in a press conference yesterday that he had approached the head of the civil service to have Terribile removed from office. In an unprecedented move, President Abela yesterday summoned the media to San Anton in a bid to defend the workings of his office, after allegations of financial mismanagement appeared in the MaltaToday. He announced that government had established a board of inquiry "establish facts" that have apparently emerged since the resignation of Terribile as secretary to the Presidency and to investigate an alleged 'leak of documents' from the Office of the President. The President alleged that documents from his office have been "circulated" among some journalists, stopping short of pointing fingers directly at Olaph Terribile. Although he announced the governmental inquiry himself, President Abela was vague in his answers when specifically asked what the board would investigate, who had been nominated to head it and what its terms of reference are. "Ask government, I cannot reply for the government on his inquiry," Abela said. Not even Martin Bugelli, the director general of government communication who sat next to the President during the press conference, could give an answer. "I have been given no information, perhaps something will be made public next week," he said. President Abela said that the board of in- quiry was set up on Friday and went as far as to say that the board had been set up follow- ing a report made by a member of his office staff. The Department of Information later issued a press release to announce that the board would be headed by former Cabinet secretary Alfred Fiorini Lowell. Asked by MaltaToday what the alleged leaked documents contain, President Abela replied: "that is something the board of in- quiry has to establish." ... Quote of the Week "What about the Attorney General's advice to tread very carefully regarding the Panama Pa- pers, because there was trouble brewing for the country? Was that why you did nothing?" Former Chief Justice Joseph Said Pullicino when questioning Police Assistant Commis- sioner Ian Abdilla during a hearing of the public inquiry board looking into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia MaltaToday 10 years ago