Sources of revenue and wealth must be explainable, whether it is through inheritance, investment or a simple employment salary. Every single cent has to be traceable and must lead to a legal source of income.

The use of physical cash in illegal activities is popular, as it is money off the radar and is not as traceable, unlike a bank or ATM transaction. Cash is the most convenient option to pay for any criminal activity. The problem is where to hide it, and money is therefore laundered with some gimmick business which barely makes any income.

The use of cash in Malta is quite popular, even though many stores accept card payments. According to a 2017 study by the European Central Bank, 74 per cent of people in Malta choose to pay by cash, the third highest in the EU. Greece placed top.

In 2019, Malta topped the list, with a whopping 89 per cent of respondents saying they preferred using cash, followed by Cyprus and Spain.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with using cash, of course, and most people just prefer it out of habit. But what happens when this money is used to pay lawyers and bail, for example? Can a lawyer accept money which comes from shady deals? Can someone pay bail with money possibly derived from criminal activity?

We had people like businessman Ryan Schembri, who fled Malta, leaving behind him a €40 million debt, before he was caught and arraigned. Schembri was then capable of paying a €150,000 personal guarantee and a €50,000 deposit. Where did the money come from? If someone is allegedly so much in debt that he must leave the country, why does no one bat an eyelid at how they can pay such hefty sums?

One of the recommendations put forward by the inquiry on Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder was for a law to fight financial crime, including bribery and corruption, through “unexplained wealth orders”.

So far, no one has bothered to put it forward, as one anticipates that many important people would end up in trouble. ADPD has been calling for key reforms for years.

We can only move forward when businessmen can no longer offer a financial lifeline to politicians into accepting their agenda- Sandra Gauci

The PN put forward a pre-election mega bill on good governance in January 2022, and Transparency International has been recommending the adoption of unexplained wealth orders to fight financial crime.

Civil society and NGOs have been recommending a number of reforms across various levels of local governance. Our ministers of justice, however, have always happily chosen to obstruct such reforms at critical moments. Edward Zammit Lewis, in particular, seemed to be sending a clear message to everyone, especially to any wrongdoers, that the most important loopholes were going to remain in place.

As we speak, the strategy of illegal salami-slicing of projects by developers continues.

Ryan Schembri, who fled Malta, leaving behind him a €40 million debt, before he was caught and arraigned, was then capable of paying a €150,000 personal guarantee and a €50,000 deposit. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

To get major projects through without environmental impact assessments, projects are split into various smaller ones under different applicant names, even though they really form one big project. When breaking the rules is so blatant, we really have to ask ourselves who they think they are fooling.

We have a country running on mutually assured destruction, where so many people are linked to something illegal that they form a web, and if one falls, many others will fall too. That is the nature of clientelism.

No one will be saved if anything were to be done to try to establish a modicum of legality.

So far, no one wants to ruffle any feathers, for fear of disgruntling a major party donor. On a superficial level, investigations continue, but the big fish always get away, with the exception of a few scapegoats.

One of the major changes that remains desperately needed is party financing reform. We can only move forward when businessmen can no longer offer a financial lifeline to politicians into accepting their agenda.

Until then, it appears that people are happy with an intentionally broken system.

Sandra Gauci is deputy chairperson of ADPD.