Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1445886
3 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 26 JANUARY 2022 NEWS Malta well below European corruption perceptions average CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Transparency International recently gave Malta a score of 54 in its Cor- ruption Perceptions Index (CPI), up one point from the all-time low of 53 scored in 2020. The Daphne Founda- tion is Transparency International's Maltese contact point. "A small shift in one year can be due to a change in one of the datasets, so it's not reliably indicative of improve- ment, as a larger increase sustained for two years or more would be. Small or no shifts are indicative that not enough is being done to eliminate corruption," the Foundation said in comments to MaltaToday. Indeed, Malta was dubbed a "signifi- cant decliner" in the 2020 index. Malta lost six points in the CPI for 2018, a full year after the Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder. Government was accused of dragging its feet on the murder case, while several scandals surrounding the Panama Papers, Pilatus Bank, and the golden passports scheme may have also contributed to the sharp decline. "Malta is far behind where it should be and public sector corruption is still perceived to be a problem," the Foun- dation said. There have been efforts to tackle high-level scandals by government and the police. For example, 2021 saw the arrest of three men accused of having supplied the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia. As a teary-eyed Vince Muscat pleaded guilty in the criminal dock last February, police went to arrest brothers Adrian and Robert Agius, known as Tal-Mak- sar, and their associate Jamie Vella on suspicion of having supplied the bomb that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia. Apart from major crimes, Malta's Fi- nancial Crimes Investigation Depart- ment (FCID) focused their efforts on money laundering arrests after last year's much-awaited Moneyval report identified strategic anti-money laun- dering deficiencies, eventually leading to Malta being greylisted by the inter- national Financial Action Task Force. Among the arrests were those of for- mer chief of staff Keith Schembri and several of his business partners work- ing across the Kasco Group of compa- nies. Police charged them in court last March on accusations that Schembri received personal payments to facilitate the purchase of a printing press by Al- lied Newspaper from his own company. Indeeed, two former managing di- rectors at Allied Newspapers – Adrian Hillman and Vince Buhagiar – were al- so charged for receiving illicit payments in return for awarding the tender to Kasco. Public sector corruption still snuck its head throughout the year, forcing the resignation of several cabinet members. The most notable of resignations was that of Justyne Caruana, who stepped down as Education Minister months after gifting a €15,000 contract to her partner Daniel Bogdanovic. MaltaToday broke the scandal in March 2021, but Caruana only ten- dered her resignation after the Stand- ards Commissioner found she breached ethics in a December report. Even after the report was published, Caruana waited over a week to step down from the position. Rosianne Cutajar, a now-former par- liamentary secretary, was similarly forced to step down on the back of an ethics report by the Standards Commis- sioner. MaltaToday revealed in December 2020 that Cutajar and her political aide received some €100,000 in brokers' fees for the sale of a €3.1 million Mdi- na property to Yorgen Fenech, now ac- cused of masterminding the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The scandal prompted independent candidate Arnold Cassola to request a standards investigation into the proper- ty deal. Months later, Cutajar resigned pending the ethics probe, and her resig- nation was made permanent when she was found to have breached ethics. Regardless of any efforts, the Founda- tion urged Malta to evaluate the find- ings of the FATF assessment that led to its greylisting and address state failures and gaps in the systems to protect fun- damental rights. "The public inquiry into the circum- stances of Daphne's assassination doc- umented multiple institutional failures and identified the need to effectively address impunity, corruption and abus- es of power and to create an enabling environment for journalism as key areas for reform." Denmark WE/EU 88 1 Finland WE/EU 88 1 New Zealand AP 88 1 Norway WE/EU 85 4 Singapore AP 85 4 Sweden WE/EU 85 4 Switzerland WE/EU 84 7 Netherlands WE/EU 82 8 Luxembourg WE/EU 81 9 Germany WE/EU 80 10 United Kingdom WE/EU 78 11 Hong Kong AP 76 12 Canada AME 74 13 Iceland WE/EU 74 13 Ireland WE/EU 74 13 Estonia WE/EU 74 13 Austria WE/EU 74 13 Australia AP 73 18 Belgium WE/EU 73 18 Japan AP 73 18 Uruguay AME 73 18 France WE/EU 71 22 Seychelles SSA 70 23 UAE MENA 69 24 Bhutan AP 68 25 Taiwan AP 68 25 Chile AME 67 27 USA AME 67 27 Barbados AME 65 29 Bahamas AME 64 30 Qatar MENA 63 31 Korea, South AP 62 32 Portugal WE/EU 62 32 Lithuania WE/EU 61 34 Spain WE/EU 61 34 Israel MENA 59 36 Latvia WE/EU 59 36 Saint Vincent & Grenadines AME 59 36 Cabo Verde SSA 58 39 Costa Rica AME 58 39 Slovenia WE/EU 57 41 Italy WE/EU 56 42 Poland WE/EU 56 42 Saint Lucia AME 56 42 Botswana SSA 55 45 Dominica AME 55 45 Fiji AP 55 45 Georgia ECA 55 45 Czechia WE/EU 54 49 Malta WE/EU 54 49 Mauritius SSA 54 49 Country Region CPI 2021 Rank / Territory Score #cpi2021 www.transparency.org/cpi 62 Portugal 61 Lithuania 61 Spain 59 Latvia 57 Slovenia 56 Italy 56 Poland 54 Czechia 54 Malta 53 Cyprus 52 Slovakia 49 Greece 47 Croatia 45 Romania 43 Hungary 42 Bulgaria 88 Denmark 88 Finland 85 Norway 85 Sweden 84 Switzerland 82 Netherlands 81 Luxembourg 80 Germany 78 United Kingdom 74 Iceland 74 Ireland 74 Estonia 74 Austria 73 Belgium 71 France SCORE COUNTRY/TERRITORY WESTERN EUROPE & EUROPEAN UNION 66/100 AVERAGE SCORE CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX 2021 SCORE 0-9 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90-100 No data Very Clean Highly Corrupt This work from Transparency International (2021) is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0