Merely two days after another inauguration of the St Luċija tunnel project, Transport Minister Ian Borg was back in the headlines for the wrong reasons.
This time, the news was not about another road-building project bulldozing over farmers but what appeared to be a clear-cut case of nepotism of high order.
Adreana Zammit, a fresh graduate and daughter of Borg’s former chief of staff, Jesmond Zammit, netted a total of €108,542 (in two direct orders) for her services as a junior lawyer within the ministry. This is an exorbitant figure, even compared to the salaries earned by various CEOs in government’s employ.
For example, PA head Martin Saliba (another Borg appointee) is a top earner whose salary reaches around €95,000.
The junior lawyer resigned a few days later, saying, according to Borg, that her work had been unfairly targeted because of her father’s political connections.
Earlier, Prime Minister Robert Abela had stated he would act after “establishing the facts”.
But he knew what those facts were: one of his minister’s closest aides had received a generous handout. Which is callous, considering the effect the pandemic has had on jobs and businesses.
Added to this, a damning NAO report condemned another dominion of Borg’s empire – Infrastructure Malta – for issuing payments against irregular VAT invoices, as well as dishing out around €16 million in pre-financing, directly breaching tender conditions.
Borg himself refused to comment.
But there is little the young minister needs to say or do to reaffirm his stance as a brash upstart who seems to believe laws are drafted to be broken, allowing entities within his ministry to build, widen, expropriate and demolish without questions being asked.
Borg’s power becomes indeed terrifying when one considers the vast European Union budgets at his disposal and the huge manpower and machinery available to him and his mentor, Frederick Azzopardi.
Even so, the minister’s media appearances continue to display an incoherent, nervous politician whose versions are, to say the least, inconsistent.
Back in December, he had famously stated that no plans for the Mrieħel flyover existed. Moviment Graffitti gave the lie to this declaration by presenting leaked plans that dated back to July 2020.
During the Dingli saga, Borg was busier getting embroiled in social media tiffs about goat’s cheese than seek dialogue, shortly after incomprehensible accusations of “territorial interest” levelled at the activists opposing the government’s road project there.
Labour seems not to have learnt lessons from the past administration, when Borg was also very prominent and had positioned himself as an eventual successor to Joseph Muscat.
With Borg retaining a huge chunk of his power (despite losing the planning, lands and construction portfolios), there is little consolation for Labour Party supporters who recognise the error of their party’s ways.
Abela’s silence about the Zammit affair was reminiscent of his silence about another saga involving Borg.
When a court threw out a libel case instituted by a middleman in a property deal involving the minister and a person with a mental disability, it described Borg’s testimony as “not credible”.
The prime minister had said he would wait to see if an appeal would be filed before taking action. That 20-day period has long since elapsed. Abela has yet to lift a finger.
In the Zammit affair, the prime minister should, at the very least, have ordered the immediate revocation of her contract. He is still duty-bound to seek clear explanations and accountability.
Abela’s sins of omission – his failure to take decisive action on his powerful minister’s dubious behaviour – are piling up.
They will weigh down on him when the election comes around.