Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/911593
maltatoday SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER 2017 11 News Analysis IN an extensive piece on the 'Cash for Passports' scheme, the report reiterates the high risk nature of such programmes in attracting money launderers and tax evasion. It also reiterates the allegation emanating from an FIAU com- pliance report that the Prime Minister's chief-of-staff Keith Schembri received kickbacks from Nexia BT's Brian Tonna from the sale of passports. The accusation is now the subject of a magisterial inquiry requested by then Opposition leader Si- mon Busuttil earlier this year. Under the heading, The Me- dia, the report emphasises that Malta has no journalism school but then goes on to feed the gen- eral narrative of an all-pervasive government by suggesting that the "one journalism module of- fered at the University of Malta is taught by cabinet Minister for Education Evarist Bartolo and Adrian Hillman". The statement is factually in- correct because although Bar- tolo and Hillman are visiting lecturers, they are not the only ones involved in teaching jour- nalism. But the report also claims Schembri co-opted the Times of Malta and The Sunday Times of Malta through his connection with Hillman – an assertion strenuously denied by the news- paper editors – and MaltaToday through its managing editor, Saviour Balzan. Conveniently, the report makes no reference to calls by MaltaToday for the resignation of Schembri and former energy minister Konrad Mizzi after their names surfaced in Panama Papers. The report calls Daphne Caru- ana Galizia Malta's "only effec- tive investigative journalist" and goes on to describe a VAT case against her as an "abusive tax investigation". Caruana Galizia was contesting a €1.3 million tax assessment over unpaid VAT. In a three-page appendix on Malta's relationship with Azer- baijan – most of which is cor- rectly built around information from Panama Papers and Para- dise Papers – the report adds that in the Eurovision song fes- tival Malta awarded Azerbaijan 12 points every year since 2010. This is again incorrect but for the sake of the greater narrative it does not really matter to the authors. THE authors felt it important to highlight the current Police Commissioner Lawrence Cuta- jar's affiliation with Inter Sup- porters Club and his friendship with fellow Inter supporter John Zammit. The mention is deemed important because Zammit's daughter, Claude-Anne Sant Fournier heads the legal and compliance office at Pilatus Bank. The sentence immediately after this implies that Cuta- jar's familiarity with Zammit was one of the reasons why he failed to act on compliance re- ports drawn up by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit on Pilatus Bank. In a critical part on the gov- ernment's failure to protect former Pilatus Bank employee, Maria Efimova – she was Caru- ana Galizia's source for the sto- ry that alleged Joseph Muscat's wife, Michelle, was the owner of Egrant – the report gets its chronology wrong. While blaming the police for failing to prosecute against politically exposed persons flagged by the FIAU, the report says the police "prosecuted ag- gressively" the whistleblower from Pilatus, charging her with stealing cash. What the report overlooked was the fact that the police charges against Efimova had been filed a year before the whole Egrant saga erupted, after the bank had terminated her employment. The report also fails to note that the police officer who prosecuted Efimo- va was Inspector Jonathan Fer- ris, the man who now claims to have damning evidence against public officials as a result of his time at the FIAU. The section on the Planning Author- ity does acknowl- edge that land permits "have always been used for politi- cal patronage", quoting statis- tics from the period between 1993 and 2016. It also correctly high- lights the increased in- cidence of approval of pro- jects in Outside Development Zones in 2016 and the weeks running up to the 2017 general election. This part of the report is pos- sibly the fairest rendition of a perennial situation that sees government dispense political patronage through building permits. THE part dealing with the Malta Financial Ser- vices Authority and its chairman Joe Bannister is an extensive reference to two blogs that dealt with the licencing process of Ta' Xbiex-based Pilatus Bank. The document reiter- ates the allegation that Bannister and the Pilatus owners were chummy buddies, which is how the bank allegedly ob- tained its licence in 2014. The report correctly notes that Bannister has been at the helm of the MFSA since 1999, specif- ically mentioning that he was appointed by former European Commissioner John Dalli. What it fails to question is why Bannister was re- tained in the same role by different PN and Labour administrations after that, even when it tran- spired he was a director of several offshore funds held in the Cayman Is- lands. But it appears the au- thors of the report had little interest in looking at events before 2013 – with the exception of John Dalli, who features prominently and has an appendix dedicated all to himself – or anything remotely to do with the PN. When describing gov- ernment's appointees at the Central Bank of Mal- ta, the report correctly outlines the links to La- bour of Alfred Mifsud, a former deputy governor, and Mario Vella, the cur- rent governor. But it simply describes the former governor Jo- sef Bonnici as "a tech- nocrat and professor of economics" without mentioning that he had been a PN minister. The section on the po- lice force gives a correct chronology of the five police commissioners that were in office since March 2013 when the Labour Party was elect- ed to government. Turning a blind eye Inter, Efimova and the PA Passports, the media and the Eurovision Keith Schembri, and Brian Tonn The report makes no reference to calls by MaltaToday for the resignation of Schembri and former energy minister Konrad Mizzi after their names surfaced in Panama Papers Former police inspector Jonathan Ferris (inset) and Commissioner of Police Lawrence Cutajar Pilatus Bank chairman Syed Ali Hasheminejed: the private bank got a licence in 2014 and is believed to host various Azerbaijani businessmen and acolytes of the Aliyev ruling dynasty Former EU Commissioner John Dalli