If anybody doubted that standards of leadership and discipline in the Malta Police Force were weak, the recent shocking reports of an internal fraud probe, especially into embezzlement of the overtime system by traffic police officers should serve as an eye-opener.

Dozens of traffic police are being investigated in connection with a major racket involving false claims for overtime work following a report by a whistleblower. It is understood that around 40 members out of 50 serving in the police traffic squad – including the superintendent – are currently being investigated about false overtime claims, with the probe also taking in district officers and other departments.

It is alleged that the officers, mainly motorcycle officers, over a period of about three years collectively filed for “hundreds of hours of overtime” that they had not carried out. Moreover, the investigation by the economic crimes unit is examining claims that some traffic policemen also misappropriated fuel which they used for their own private vehicles.

To the investigators’ surprise, the unit’s senior officer, who does not use a motorcycle but instead enjoys the privilege of having a chauffeur-driven car, also appeared to have logged overtime claims. Were it not such a serious breach of discipline, there is an element of the ‘Keystone Cops’ about this whole matter.  

If proven, this is a serious abuse on several levels, ranging from mismanagement to corruption and possibly also ‘dereliction of duty’, which is a criminal offence. The police have confirmed that arrests are taking place following weeks of investigations.

One of the first things Prime Minister Robert Abela declared on taking over was his determination to ensure that long overdue reforms of the police force were instituted. It is to his credit and that of his new Minister for Home Affairs, Byron Camilleri, that there appears to have been no attempt to cover up what has been going on, apparently for the last three years. Indeed, it beggars belief that nobody in the force noticed much sooner that overtime claims were being abused.

Of all the major disciplined arms of the state, the police are probably the weakest, as this incident highlights. Successive attempts at improvement and reorganisation over the last three decades have failed.

The joke that the Malta Police Force has more deputy commissioners than the much larger Metropolitan Police Force in London is worth repeating if only to underline the dereliction of duty that must have occurred in the case of the overtime abuse by dozens of traffic policemen.

It is not just the superintendent who should be held responsible, but also those in the chain of command who must have turned a blind eye to – or were simply inefficient about – what was going on under their noses these last three years.

This incident underlines the urgent need for a small, independent commission, reporting directly to the prime minister, to be established to examine the state of leadership, training, discipline, morale and organisation of the force, and to make far-reaching recommendations for its improvement. The commission should be required to report before the end of the year.

It also begs the question citizens have been asking in Malta with increasing urgency for the last few years: why have corruption and swindling the state – as these police officers have allegedly done – become a way of life in Malta?

Corruption and maladministration in public state institutions have become the rule, weakening faith in good governance and undermining Malta’s reputation.