I expected Prime Minister Robert Abela to do three things on Monday in parliament: apologise, rectify and, finally, provide details of who will shoulder responsibility for the hospital fraud. Instead, he churned out the same partisan jibes used by Labour government in all the previous debates on this scandalous deal.

Abela cannot play the innocent bystander card. As then prime minister Joseph Muscat’s special designated adviser sitting at all cabinet meetings as a member of parliament and, subsequently, as head of the government, he was duty bound to protect the national interest at all stages.

Together with the past and present Labour cabinet ministers he chose, at the very least, to look the other way while the taxpayer was being defrauded. Labour cabinet ministers and MPs defended the scandalous deal in previous parliamentary sittings and gladly voted to increase the funding to Vitals and later Steward.

For this, they should apologise to the Maltese people. Abela had a golden opportunity to do so on Monday in parliament but it seems that sorry is the hardest word for him.

I also expected Abela to explain how he is going to rectify the situation. The nation was defrauded by over €300 million in taxpayers’ money willingly paid to Vitals and Steward by Abela and his government and that of his predecessor. What steps are going to be taken by the government to recoup the monies that were illicitly taken? What steps are going to be taken against the persons who committed this monumental fraud? On these points, we heard absolutely nothing from the prime minister, the deputy prime minister and their colleagues.

Finally, I expected the prime minister to provide details on who is going to shoulder responsibility for the fraud, a fraud that cost the taxpayers hundreds of millions of euros and could have potentially cost us billions. There is political, administrative and criminal responsibility that must be borne.

The bar for political responsibility has repeatedly been lowered and lowered by this government.

If nobody in government assumes responsibility, following the unprecedented judgment delivered in the lawsuit filed by Adrian Delia, then we have as a country truly reached the bottom of the political barrel.

It is unfathomable that not even one sitting member of government – not even Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne, who, as minister of health, had initially sought to take credit for the entry Steward whom he lauded as “the real deal” – is going to stand up and say “mea culpa”. Anyone in government who was in a position to stop this fraud but failed to do so is politically responsible.

How many within the current Labour government ranks fall within this threshold? I count at least the prime minister, the deputy prime minister and the minister of finance for having budgeted and authorised the payments of hundreds of millions of euros for this fraudulent concession that they should have stopped in its tracks.

It is unfathomable that not even one sitting member of government is going to stand up and say ‘mea culpa’- Mario de Marco

There is also administrative responsibility that must be borne. The court was horrified by the lack of professionalism shown by government officials who were duty bound to protect us. Senior officials in the health and finance ministry and in government agencies that oversaw the negotiations and execution of this project must face the music. They should have offered to resign as soon as the judge delivered his sentence. That judgment should have led to a flurry of resignations. But no one, not even one person, felt it was his duty to step aside.

There is then the criminal responsibility for this multi-million fraud that the police commissioner seems reluctant to investigate and prosecute for reasons known to all.

Every action has its consequences. Politics should not be the exception to this rule. Good governance demands that whoever in government was by commission or omission involved in this deal to step aside. They can then work to clear their name away from public office.

This is not some revolutionary baying for blood. This is a legitimate expectation for things to take their natural course. In this case, in a normal country, a judgment of this magnitude would have, should have had its consequences. The fact that it did not is a story in itself. It smacks of arrogance and, above all, a failure to read the mood of the people.

The prime minister and his ministers think they are invincible. Very much like his predecessor. Before thinking of tattooing this on his arm, Abela should remember that, in politics, moods can change very quickly. Trust is lost in the blink of an eye and support, even what appears to be insurmountable support, can evaporate very quickly.

The people expect the government to take concrete action. This matter is not going to go away, it is not going to be swept under the large carpet in the cabinet room.

Abela had the chance on Monday. He missed it. With every hour that passes, the call for action is going to grow louder. Robert Abela, the ball is now in your court. It has been in your court from the day you became prime minister. But, now, you cannot ignore it anymore. Apologise, rectify and then assume political responsibility.

Mario de Marco is the Nationalist Party spokesperson on tourism.