A Times of Malta report detailing an organised disability racket involving a former Labour MP sent shockwaves through the country. 

For one man, however, this was “no new discovery”. 

Prime Minister Robert Abela brushed off concerns about the racket, saying the revelations were old news to him. 

Abela said he had immediately “taken action” when then MP Silvio Grixti was questioned by police in December 2021 over forged medical documents. 

No public announcement about the suspected racket was ever made by Abela. 

Moreover, the social security department said it only got to know about the racket nine months later, in September 2022. 

The Ministry for Social Policy, headed by Michael Falzon, said last September that the Income Support and Compliance Division (ISCD) detected suspicious severe disability assistance applications and alerted the police to possible forged medical certificates.

Abela claims it was his office that first alerted the police to a potentially suspicious case, and Grixti was forced to resign as an MP. 

When contacted, a spokesperson for Abela did not elaborate on when the prime minister first informed Falzon about the racket. 

On Saturday, Falzon’s ministry appointed a three-man board to assess the disability benefits scheme. 

‘Police should probe Labour’ 

Opposition leader Bernard Grech demanded a police probe into how the Labour Party potentially gained from the racket. 

Many of those falsely certified as suffering from severe disabilities like epilepsy hailed from Labour strongholds. Grech insisted the police have an obligation to probe who ultimately benefits when such rackets are uncovered. 

“If we have these allegations and people are being charged in court with taking social benefits that they shouldn’t have, if this is true, are the police only going to charge the small fry?” Grech questioned.

Some 141 people have so far been ordered to return a total of €2.1 million in severe disability assistance benefits they were not entitled to, with police also charging claimants by the dozen in court. 

Grixti has yet to be prosecuted. 

Grech said the police must probe those higher up in the alleged fraud, saying those who facilitated it “clearly did it to secure people’s votes”. 

‘This looks like organised crime’ 

The president of Malta’s Medical Association Martin Balzan said the scale of the racket looks like organised crime. 

“The scale of this suggests it came from above... to me, this sounds like organised crime,” said Balzan, who discovered that his signature has been forged on around six or seven documents.

“Cheating the system is wrong. That money is for people who have a serious disability,” the MAM president said. Balzan said “large numbers” of his colleagues had been impacted, with multiple documents being forged at one go. 

“Certain things were blatant. It happened to a lot of specialists.

“I’m very happy that the police investigated this. We need to go after the perpetrators and not just the beneficiaries,” Balzan said.

‘Zero tolerance’ to rackets 

The Chamber of Commerce warned that systematic abuses were costing millions in public funds that could easily be invested in systems that would eradicate the possibility of rackets. 

It slammed politicians “who made headlines for the wrong reasons” and called for “a zero-tolerance policy” on abuse.

“The pervasiveness of practices that propagate a culture of abuse of power and clientelism puts a heavy onus on the government to urgently implement digital systems that increase efficiency, provide full transparency and ensure fairness,” it said.

The chamber said the money being squandered through such rackets could be better used to support those who really need help and to address issues which are leading to the country’s deterioration such as the traffic situation, the lack of investment in utility infrastructure, the shabbiness and proper waste management.

‘System should be reviewed’ 

Former head of state Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca called for a full review of how benefits are assessed in the wake of the racket revelations. 

“It is also crucial that, if we want to rebuild trust in the system, then justice must be served and appropriate action is taken,” Coleiro Preca told Times of Malta.

She said it is encouraging that the ministry’s income support and compliance division (ISCD) detected suspicious transactions “but we need to go further”.

“We have to review the entire process of how assessments for social benefits are made and ensure that proper checks and balances are in place to deter any potential abuse,” she said.