The latest series of revelations about the hospitals deal is a case study in abuse of power and government failures. The revelations destroy any last vestiges of perceived integrity that this administration was desperately clinging onto over the Vitals-Steward debacle.

Government failures arise when politics becomes the enemy of sound public policy; when politicians and their appointees are either uninterested in properly managing public institutions or, out of self-interest, deliberately weaken them. As a result, integrity loses its protective guard rails.

Developments will continue to unfold on our investigative reporting on the Joseph Muscat money trail and the exorbitant spending of the people running the three hospitals privatised in 2015.

Meanwhile, this editorial deals specifically with the auditor general’s report on the Steward deal published on Monday.

The protagonist of this debacle is ex-minister Konrad Mizzi. The auditor general accuses him of “misleading” cabinet over the Steward Health Care deal, which included a clause that obliged the government to pay it €100 million if the hospital’s contract were annulled.

Neither did Mizzi seek cabinet authorisation when the government acted as a guarantor in several financing arrangements entered into by Steward and Bank of Valletta.

Mizzi has insisted that his cabinet colleagues were kept fully informed of developments on the deal.

A court has already annulled the hospitals’ contract on the grounds of fraud. Steward is appealing the decision.

While the legal outcome of this saga is still to be decided, what is crystal clear is that the contract has resulted in a gross waste of taxpayers’ money.

And nobody has yet taken responsibility for it. Some cabinet ministers at the time of this saga are still serving in Prime Minister Robert Abela’s cabinet.

They seem to disregard that cabinet decisions imply collective responsibility for all decisions.

The auditor general confirms that Malta Enterprise failed to respond to any requests for information on the deal. Correspondence sent to it over the more recent report “was not acknowledged”.

The auditor general’s probe was frustrated by “limited disclosure” from Muscat and “curt replies” by his chief of staff, Keith Schembri. Still, Muscat enjoys perks financed by taxpayers, as approved by Abela when he resigned.

While unresolved issues relating to this tragic saga will take time to be settled by the courts, Abela has so far taken little action to address the political realities that led to this cascade of failures under his predecessor Muscat’s administration.

He has not even accepted the opposition’s request for a full parliamentary debate.

The effectiveness of the government’s actions depends on its credibility and the public’s trust.

For too long, this administration has argued that electoral success is equivalent to the public’s approval of its record on governance. However, credibility stems from integrity – the government’s ability to act in the public interest and minimise waste, fraud and corruption. Its record here is abysmal.

This saga has highlighted the desperate need for a more robust integrity framework. This would include strengthened instruments in the way of ethics codes, conflict-of-interest guidelines, revolving-door policies, whistle-blowing arrangements and unimpeachable structures intended to enforce such policies and prevent corrupt practices.

The National Audit Office is a rare example of an integrity-guarding institution in action. Honest citizens are grateful for it but demand that this culture spreads throughout the government.

Abela must now ensure all those who have contributed to this massive and disgraceful failure of public governance are held accountable.

Otherwise, the hospitals deal will continue to hang like an albatross around his administration’s neck.