The government has yet to shoulder responsibility for illegal and abusive promotions for the top brass of the armed forces, the Nationalist Party said on Wednesday.

It was reacting after Times of Malta reported on Tuesday that the Ombudsman had found that the accelerated promotion of four Armed Forces of Malta officers soon after the 2013 general election was “outright illegal”, having been ordered directly by the home affairs minister at the time and carried out behind the back of the AFM commander.

Shadow Minister Beppe Fenech Adami said this was the latest in a series of confirmation of the abuses made by the Labour government in army promotions.

The country now found itself with an army whose most senior officers were promoted in an illegal and abusive manner to the detriment of others. And the government of Prime Minister Robert Abela was doing nothing to remedy the injustice suffered by those who were passed over. 

Fenech Adami insisted that the prime minister and the minister responsible at the time needed to shoulder political responsibility and the PN remained committed to administer justice.