Prime Minister Robert Abela is either in denial or prefers to have his head firmly buried in the sand.
“I can say this for sure, and this may be without precedent, that, during the past two years, we have not had one single episode of bad governance,” he declared during an interview with the Labour Party’s media to mark two years since he succeeded Joseph Muscat.
From where he stands, Abela evidently fails to see the fallout of the many scandals happening before he became prime minister, though he was a consultant to one.
He does not seem, or does not want, to understand that the culture of impunity that prevailed under Muscat persists to a large extent.
Take the deal with Vitals Global Healthcare to run three state hospitals. The national audit office conservatively estimated its value at €4 billion and found that multiple failures in good governance, accountability and transparency characterised the “flawed concession”.
The murky way in which the deal with Electrogas was conducted makes it another scandal of the first order. There were others, of course.
These include the kickbacks allegations tied to the so-called individual investor programme, the doubts with regard to the Shanghai Electric contract, the controversy involving the American University of Malta, the dirty Montenegro wind farm purchase and the giveaway price at which the former Institute of Tourism Studies building and land was handed over to a private developer.
Abela will conveniently say these all happened before his time. Still, judging by his inaction, he appears unperturbed by what is happening as a result of those lousy deals even now, on his watch.
We will not mention the scandals that hounded a number of his cabinet members, especially Justyne Caruana, Rosianne Cutajar and Edward Zammit Lewis.
He conveniently forgets the several questionable appointments of individuals promoted simply because of their allegiance to Labour.
Abela might think a lot of the squandering of public money to appease the ‘friends of friends’ might go unnoticed. It does not.
His ‘no single bad governance episode’ comment indicates he is determined to give the impression that all is well, that the institutions are functioning like clockwork, that the rule of law prevails and that good governance is back.
He also appears to be content with the fact that protagonists in such scandals, like his predecessor, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi, have shouldered their political responsibility because they were ‘dismissed’.
It would, therefore, be at his peril if Abela, much like Muscat before him, prefers not to acknowledge the risks that remain. He will only be walking on thin ice.
What the auditor general had found noteworthy when probing the hospitals concession was the “covert role” the office of the prime minister had in the negotiations.
Abela’s ‘passive role’ now could prove to be just as lethal.
The Daphne Caruana Galizia murder public inquiry had noted that the public administration is duty bound to protect the rule of law and “should never allow the thirst for money and profit for the businessman or public official to obscure correctness and good governance”.
There have been a number of instances over the past two years that would fall into this category.
So, rather than living in denial, Abela should accept reality and resolve to act upon it, come what may.