The allegations about an ID cards racket are very disturbing. If proved correct, it is not only good governance and sound public administration that are affected but national security too.
The Maltese identity card can be used as a travel document in EU countries that form part of the Schengen zone. Whether by strange coincidence or for some other unknown reason, just days after the allegations became public, the government urged people to travel to Italy and its islands with both their ID card and passport.
The Maltese embassy in Italy, which issued the notice, attributed this to the fact that “many thefts are being reported”. In reality, many thefts are reported all over Europe. All the time.
A magisterial inquiry into the allegations will, no doubt, take its time, especially if, as has been claimed, something like 18,000 ID cards are involved. We heard claims of stolen identities to strangers ‘living’ in someone else’s home. In a sworn 59-page application, lawyer and former PN MP Jason Azzopardi even claimed that a woman who organised private parties, where drugs flowed freely and Latin American prostitutes mingled with VIP guests, bragged about how easy she found it to obtain permits for her girls thanks to her “corrupt” contacts.
The list goes on: a man who played a secondary role in an identity fraud racket, fixing letterboxes to residences to provide addresses for residence permits for third-country nationals, was handed a suspended sentence on Thursday.
The web spawn by the racket could go far and wide, even beyond Malta’s shores
Judging by what has emerged so far, there are holes that must be urgently plugged. The Identity Card and Other Identity Documents Act contains provisions that underscore the very serious manner in which such documents should be processed, handled and retained. The buck stops with the State identity agency, Identità, and the minister concerned.
Yet, despite the grave allegations, the best Identità could do is say that it has a robust system of checks and balances in place. It said it always acts when worrying signs emerge and it cannot be held responsible if companies and service providers are given the wrong information by applicants. Be that as it may, it emerges from a court case that the agency and the police could have had at least an inkling of what was going on as far back as October 2022.
After the allegations became public, a person wrote to Times of Malta saying that, in 2021, he informed the agency about third-country nationals who were wrongly registered at a flat he owned in Qawra. He also lodged a report with the police towards the end of that year. But nothing happened.
One can understand Identità saying – rather nonchalantly – that it cannot be held responsible for what third parties tell commercial companies when applying for a service.
However, the entity – and its political masters – must certainly shoulder responsibility for staff members acting wrongly, as well as for the inept procedural safeguards. The perpetrators may be identified and possibly prosecuted as a result of the magisterial inquiry sparked by Azzopardi.
However, the web spawn by the racket could go far and wide, even beyond Malta’s shores. Experience has proved that departmental/internal inquiries serve very little to expose all the shortcomings and loopholes.
At this stage, the implications of having so many ID cards that are forged or based on fake information surely justifies a public inquiry.
It is disheartening to witness yet another scandal dominating the headlines. But it is even more troubling that, once again, a government entity lies at the centre of the mess.