Updated 1.15pm

Malta needs a "reboot" and minister Ian Borg should do the right thing and resign, public figures and activists said on Sunday in reaction to a driving licence racket exposed by Times of Malta.

The racket, through which many candidates were fast-tracked or helped to get a driving licence, led straight to former Transport Minister Ian Borg and his trusted workers. 

WhatsApp chats obtained by Times of Malta show Borg, his canvasser Jesmond Zammit, and his ministry personnel regularly piled pressure on Transport Malta’s director of licensing Clint Mansueto to "help" candidates at different stages of the licensing process.

Nationalist Party transport spokesman Adrian Delia said it was disgraceful that the country was exposed to another scandal in the space of a few weeks, which reflects the "inequality" between people, this time even posing a danger to people on the streets

The revelations showed the government did not care for people’s safety on the roads, as long as it gained votes, the former PN leader said in a statement. 

Delia asked what was keeping Robert Abela from forcing Borg to shoulder some form of political responsibility.

The Times of Malta revelations also noted that Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà had the chat logs of the scandal but failed to take action, he said.

For Abela, people are just votes, Delia said.

In a separate Facebook post, PN leader Bernard Grech reiterated that for the PL government, votes were worth more than lives.

"They had told us they wanted to live in a country where one's knoweldge was what counted, and not whom one knew... the [Times of Malta] reports confirm that Robert Abela's governent has lost the moral compass.

"Enough is enough," Grech said, adding that the problem had become a problem for all (tagħna lkoll).

In a statement, ADPD called for the immediate resignation of Borg, saying his position was compromised and not acceptable.

"The country needs ministers it can trust, who were not involved in criminal practices of vote buying to benefit friends and incompetent people," the Green Party said in a statement.

This racket, it said, was another attack on the country’s democracy, and another scandal in a chain of scandals.

ADPD asked the police commissioner to explain why he had not acted on the evidence produced by the chats, accusing the police of yet again rendering themselves "a shield to the dirt" in Robert Abela’s cabinet.

In a social media post, ADPD chairperson Sandra Gauci said the country needs to be rebooted to "start from scratch".

'A criminal government'

Robert Aquilina, president of civil society group Repubblika, said the country is being managed by a criminal government.

"It is a government that consciously wants abuse, deceit and corruption."

He asked Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà if he intends to arrest and interrogate Ian Borg on Sunday.

In a statement, Repubblika said the story exposes in detail how a bureaucratic system that supposedly grants a driving license to competent people has been corrupted to buy votes and award those loyal to the government.

Like every other scandal of systematic corruption, the police acted against a small number of people who had limited participation and closed their eyes to the involvement of a minister and officials from among their staff.

Repubblika said it was worrying to see Borg actually justifying his involvement in the scheme, by bragging that his doors are always open to those desiring favours.

It was clear there was no political will to remove corruption, Repubblika said, underlining the need for Malta to become a clean republic.

The political class should lead by example and close doors to those seeking to break the rules.

Urges commissioner to investigate

MEP candidate Arnold Cassola called on the Standards Commissioner to investigate Borg's role in the racket.

The minister, he said, had put the lives of thousands of drivers and pedestrians at risk by recommending and ordering his subordinates to pass from driving exams candidates who were not capable of doing so without his intervention.

This was also a rampant abuse of power.

The minister was still not transparent with the public and was refusing to explain his role in the racket.

"Our country’s reputation is threatened. We cannot allow the country’s foreign policy to be led by such a corrupt person," Cassola said.

Civil society group Occupy Justice described the scandal as an example of "more corruption. vote buying, impunity."

"How can people remain quiet in the face of all this filth," it said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

‘Let the institutions do their job’

Ministers who were walking into a Labour Party event on Sunday morning had few words when asked about the revelations this morning, mostly sticking to their tried and tested mantra of “letting the institutions do their job”, which is what Planning Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi said. 

Similarly, Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo said that the institutions looking into the case, be it the court or the police, must have the “liberty” to continue their work. 

Asked whether the Labour Party would be conducting its own investigation into the matter, Bartolo said that whatever is happening internally within the party is the party’s own business. 

Agriculture Minister Anton Refalo, whose son was named as one of the candidates passed on to Mansueto to be “helped” with his driving test, refused to engage with any questions and continued to walk away/ 

Meanwhile, Ministers Miriam Dalli and Michael Falzon claimed they had not yet read up on the details of the revelation and were not in a position to comment. 

Ray Mizzi, one of the officials revealed through chats to have passed on several names to Mansueto, is an aide to Falzon.

'Criminals still benefit immunity because of political ties'

In a cryptic message on Facebook early on Sunday, former PL minister Evarist Bartolo said everyone should be equal in the eye of the law, and whoever broke the law should face the consequences.

"Should. But we know that there are people who break the law and are not held accountable as it seems they are not answerable to anyone. They benefit from immunity... Protected."

Bartolo referred to the ecclesiastical immunity granted to criminals over two centuries ago if they sought refuge in a church following a crime.

"For years, there were criminals who abused the system as much as they could, committed crime and then went to a chapel to benefit immunity, protection" until the Vatican withdrew the privilege, he explained.

"More than two centuries later, we still have criminals who benefit immunity or protection because of their political contacts, their financial power, police or court shortages that allow the justice system to favour criminals, rather than protect their victims."