When secrecy is vital

Real democracies mandate that sitting cabinet ministers submit full asset declarations, which include their spouses’ and partners’ assets. Strong democracies have rigorous independent oversight of those declarations. True democracies ensure that the public has direct and easy access to the disclosures of their ministers. But here in Labour’s Malta, Prime Minister Robert Abela is close to finally fulfilling his dream – to abolish ministers’ assets declarations.

Honest politicians with integrity have no qualms complying with the democratic requirement to declare their assets and those of their partners. There is no good reason why Abela wants to eliminate that requirement.

So why is Abela so desperate to conceal from the nation his substantial wealth and that of his ministers? Exposing those assets would no doubt elicit public fury which may lead to significant political fallout. Roderick Galdes’ massive multi-national property empire jars with his declared €60,000 annual income. Having to declare all those properties only riles the public struggling to make ends meet. That’s not what you need so close to an election.

That may explain Abela’s sudden urgency to rush through legislation to abolish ministerial asset declarations in the midst of a war raging in the Middle East. With a stricken Russian oil tanker drifting dangerously towards Malta, Abela’s priority is to hide his ministers’ assets from the public.

Abela knows that ministerial asset declarations reveal any massive discrepancies between the income of his ministers and their accumulated wealth.

Galdes’ massive property portfolio and his assets could never ever have been accumulated through his declared earnings. Abela’s own massive wealth made him look out of touch, simply too rich to understand the challenges faced by the average citizen. Those asset declarations raised legitimate questions about how somebody so young could have acquired so much wealth in so little time.

Abolishing those declarations will simply get rid of all those inconvenient questions, it will simply eliminate the envious prying into his affairs. His newest legislation will mean he doesn’t need to face questions about how he acquired so much property and land, developed his Żejtun and Xewkija properties while simultaneously increasing his bank savings.

But Abela’s greatest stroke of genius is eliminating the requirement to declare spouses’ assets and financial interests. That provides the biggest loophole of all. Assets can legally be shifted onto a partner, and they will never appear in any disclosure.

Galdes tried to wriggle out of the strait jacket he put himself into by claiming his wealth came from “family assets”. He claimed his wife was working. But his own asset declarations showed him up – he’d either failed to declare her income or else she hadn’t been working at all, at least until she was put onto Wasteserv’s board of directors despite her evident lack of qualifications and expertise in the field. In Abela’s new ingenious system nobody would know.

Abela simply deleted a whole section of the current code of ethics that obliges ministers to “immediately provide a statement of his assets and interests to the cabinet secretary”. Instead, ministers will simply fill in the far less detailed declaration submitted by MPs.

Robert Abela should remember that no assets will remain secret for long- Kevin Cassar

But ministers have far more power that regular MPs. They control budgets, contracts and make key decisions with massive financial implications. They should face far more scrutiny than regular MPs whose only power is their vote in parliament. Cabinet ministers have important executive roles. MPs don’t. Ministers administer national assets and taxpayers’ money. MPs don’t.

Abela knows exactly what he’s doing. He also knows exactly why he’s doing it. His radical changes will mean far less information and detail about ministers’ assets and wealth.

Ministers won’t need to provide a full list of their properties and those of their spouses. They won’t need to reveal details of their bank accounts, cash holdings, shares, investments and business interests.

There won’t be any details on the exact income streams. Most importantly there’ll be no declarations of spouses’ assets.

Before, the public knew whether a minister’s wife owned property tied to a government project. You could track new income streams or sudden increases in wealth. Now, all a minister needs to do to hide a massive increase in his bank account is simply put that money in his partner’s account.

Abela is intent on preventing any disclosure on the wealth of his ministers. He’s determined to stop us keeping track of his own wealth. That’s why he’s dismantling a system that has been in place for decades. He’s cynically arguing that ministers shouldn’t need to submit a separate more detailed declaration than regular MPs’ declarations.

The truth is that those MP asset declarations are not really open to public scrutiny.

Journalists and members of the public need to ask for permission to see those declarations – but when and if they’re given permission to view then they can’t make copies or take photos of them.

Abela’s carefully crafted changes have one clear objective – to conceal the truth and to hide his own wealth and that of his ministers.

Many others tried the same trick. Nawaz Sharif attempted to hide his luxury properties and offshore companies, but he was caught, removed from office and sentenced to prison.

The Panama Papers exposed Iceland’s prime minister for failing to declare his wife’s offshore companies and was forced to resign.

Jerome Cahuzac, France’s minister for the budget was caught with a secret foreign bank account and forced to resign, sentenced to prison and banned from politics. Konrad Mizzi never imagined the Panama Papers would reveal his secret Panama company and New Zealand trust which finally proved his undoing.

Abela should remember that no assets will remain secret for long – and once exposed the consequences will eventually be severe. As for his latest stunt, Abela will go down in history as the prime minister who engineered the greatest cover-up in Malta’s political history.