White House workers spent hours taping together documents that Donald Trump regularly ripped up. Trump had a habit of destroying documents and tossing them out. But that was illegal.

In 1978, the US congress passed the presidential records act. It stipulated that the president cannot destroy records until he seeks advice from the national archivist and notifies congress. Congress was worried that Richard Nixon was about to destroy Watergate-related White House tape recordings that eventually led to his resignation. Since then, presidential records became the property of the American people.

Trump and his staff regularly destroyed documents and conducted official business on private e-mail or text messaging systems such as WhatsApp.

Don McGahn, the White House counsel, twice issued memos reminding the top execu­tive that they must stop. The national security archive sued to prevent the Trump White House destroying electronic communications or records they sent or received on WhatsApp. Trump’s actions erased potential evidence of “criminal culpability”.

In Malta, deficient documentation has enabled disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat to get away with murder. In his most recent public appearance he flagrantly contradicted Edward Scicluna’s sworn testimony. Muscat claimed that a €100 million termination clause as part of the hospitals’ privatisation deal was presented to the cabinet. Scicluna testified he only found out about it after it was signed, although he was finance minister. They can’t both be right. If proper cabinet minutes were kept, it would be easy to know who is and for the police to prosecute one of them for perjury. Instead, Muscat’s claim remains unchallengeable.

Of course, we know who is telling the truth. The NAO report on the Vitals deal concluded that the finance ministry headed by Scicluna was not consulted regarding payment from the deal. It also found that no authorisation was sought from the cabinet prior to issuance of the request for proposals.

Like Trump, Muscat and his kitchen cabinet expertly left no trace. Where records existed, they were wilfully destroyed before the police could get their hands on them.

Like Donald Trump, Joseph Muscat and his kitchen cabinet expertly left no trace- Kevin Cassar

Keith Schembri’s lost phone and the treasure trove of Whats­App messages on it have vanished without trace, proficiently enabled by police procrastination and incompetence.

Muscat has a long and professional record of concealing evidence. Early in his career, he negotiated away millions of euros in the Cafe Premier deal on his personal e-mail. Together with Schembri and Owen Bonnici, he conspired with Henley & Partners’ Chris Kalin to ruin Daphne Caruana Galizia on his personal josephmuscat.com e-mail.

When Muscat ordered Johann Buttigieg to gift €241,000 to Konrad Mizzi in the form of a Malta Tourism Authority consultancy, Muscat left no record. His instructions to Buttigieg were only verbal, bypassing all rules and regulations.

Muscat claimed the secret memorandum of understanding with the shady Vitals group was lost. The auditor general had been requesting a copy for months and published his report without seeing a copy. It took Robert Abela’s threats for the MOU to miraculously resurface. But even without it, the auditor’s report concluded that there was “collusion” with Vitals, that the concession was predetermined, that no minister had formally authorised the deal, that there were serious shortcomings in the bid, that the due diligence was “grossly inadequate” and that there was gross “failure in governance”.

Another NAO investigation into the transfer of the Institute of Tourism Studies land to Silvio Debono’s db Group found no minutes of the negotiations. There was no documentation to show whether Muscat or Mizzi authorised the transfer. The OPM and the ministry of tourism simply “passed the buck between them”. After months of investigations, the auditor general could not decide because of “missing” documentation.

When Carmelo Abela summarily and vindictively ordered Andrew Caruana Galizia back from India there were no written instructions. The minister’s verbal instructions, which conflicted with the advice of the high commissioner, were duly executed by his permanent secretary with total disregard for the country’s interests.

Many parliamentary questions remain unanswered with the excuse that no documentation or records exist. Freedom of information requests are denied with similar pretexts of absent records or that data is still being collated.

When Melvin Theuma’s phantom job was revealed, Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar denied he had been employed. When irrefutable evidence was published in the press that Theuma was recruited by the social solidarity ministry, Cutajar grudgingly issued a correction. The implication of his original statement was that Theuma had lied, which would mean withdrawal of his pardon and collapse of the Caruana Galizia case.

Cutajar is responsible for the whole civil service. The recurring issue of missing, lost, or non-existent records should have spurred him to introduce real changes to the civil service to improve documentation. He has been appointed by Abela on the cabinet committee on governance. The basis of good governance is accurate and accessible documentation.

Members of cabinet should only use official communication methods for government work. But, unlike the White House counsel, Cutajar never admonished Edward Zammit Lewis, his head at the governance cabinet committee, on his use of WhatsApp. Nor did he admonish Muscat, who appointed him, for negotiating millions of euros via his personal e-mail.

If Cutajar were interested in governance, he would institute measures to ensure that civil servants only execute decisions that are clearly documented and recorded. He would empower the civil service to protect the country from the worst excesses of the executive and ensure that records are meticulously preserved to prove crimi­nal culpability where it exists. He would ensure that when those records are legally requested by the institutions, the courts or the press, they are expeditiously provided.

That would only happen if the government’s intentions were noble. Meanwhile, a hijacked civil service continues to provide cover, through secrecy and disinformation, for the flagrant falsehoods of its executive, present and past.  

Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery and former PN candidate.