Even if some figures have actually dropped, the data contained in the latest Eurobarometer survey on corruption can only be bad news.
Although down from the 74 per cent recorded at the end of 2019, half of the Maltese respondents still feel corruption has increased, above the 41 per cent EU average. Nearly eight in every 10 deem corruption to be widespread in the country and just over a third (38 per cent) think the government is effective in fighting the scourge.
The study further established that corruption is seen as being part of the business culture in Malta by 72 per cent of the people, 11 percentage points above the EU average.
These are disturbing figures. They reflect the fact that people are well aware nothing has been done to implement the recommendations made by the public inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Robert Abela’s attempt to be seen as doing something about it have evidently failed to pull the wool over the eyes of most survey respondents.
The various forms of corruption listed in the introduction to the Eurobarometer report reflect shady cases that continue to surface: bribery, trading in influence, nepotism, conflict of interest and revolving doors between the public and the private sectors.
The consequences can only be tragic, even deadly, as Malta’s own experience proves.
Worse than allowing corruption to fester behind closed doors is refusing to launch an all-out war against it once the extent of it has been exposed.
Eurobarometer notes that exposure to corruption also influences attitudes. “Europeans who have witnessed or experienced corruption,” it remarks, “are less likely to view corruption as unacceptable and more likely to think it is acceptable to do a favour, give a gift or give money when they want something from the public administration or public service.”
The development of an “overarching anti-corruption strategy, built on a risk assessment in respect of the government and its top executive officials, has not yet been initiated,” GRECO, the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption, observed in a compliance report on Malta last May.
Safeguards, it went on, have yet to be put in place to ensure the appointment of ‘persons of trust’ is kept to “an absolute minimum”. No measures have been taken to introduce ad hoc disclosure when conflicts of interest occur in respect of top executive officials and regulation of lobbying and the disclosure of contacts between top executives and third parties have still to happen, GRECO also noted.
Such shortcomings ensure a fertile ground for the greedy and the sleazy, whether in business or politics, and for other hangers-on attracted by the culture of impunity that makes their transition to the nouveau riche a smooth ride.
The three judges who conducted the public inquiry into the Caruana Galizia murder commented: “Those who breach the law should suffer the consequences of their action and should not expect to be able to pay money to rectify what, by law, they had no right for. It is this mentality, prevalent within society, that consolidates the arrogance of the politically and economically powerful. It is the seed that sprouts corruption.”
Not much has changed since the political turmoil that ousted Joseph Muscat. The appeal made by Pope Francis when he visited Malta last May still stands: “May your commitment to eliminate illegality and corruption be strong, like the north wind that sweeps the coasts of this country. May you always cultivate legality and transparency, which will enable the eradication of corruption and criminality…”