The Nationalist Party has described evidence by Finance Minister Edward Scicluna before the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder inquiry as 'incredible' and astonishing.

"Under Scicluna’s financial watch, Labour witnessed the worst scandal-ridden legislature in history, with major stories of abuse and corruption relating to the Panama Papers, money-laundering-ridden banks, uncovering of secret offshore companies and a number of shady government-sponsored financial deals such as the Electrogas energy deal and the privatisation of Malta’s three major hospitals to a company with zero experience in health administration whose ultimate beneficial owner was never disclosed.

"Edward Scicluna now rails against the fact that decisions were taken by an inner core, which he was excluded from, ignoring the most obvious fact that as a Finance Minister he would have signed off on most of these shady deals. He had every opportunity to express his dissatisfaction by voting accordingly but failed to do so, repeatedly. He moreover repeatedly voted his confidence in Joseph Muscat and the “inner circle” composed of Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri that he now laments of," the shadow minister of finance, Mario de Marco said. 

"His justification today, incredibly, seemed to hint that having foregone a more remunerative job in Brussels, it was not in his interest to vote out corruption and abuse if such action would have entailed a resignation. Money before principles."

De Marco said that the more Scicluna sought to detach himself from Muscat, the more he confirmed that he was "at best, spinelessP and at worst, confirms that such actions were taken with his blessing."

It was therefore no wonder that month after month, reputable international institutions were placing Malta among shady jurisdictions, making it an even harder task for the authorities to fight grey-listing by Moneyval, rather than focusing on a much-needed recovery for the Maltese economy.