The whole nation was shocked by footage circulated on social media showing large blocks of stone falling beyond a boundary wall and crashing onto busy Psaila Street, in Birkirkara close to a school, during demolition works carried out by Polidano Brothers Ltd. Miraculously, no one was injured.

The Building and Construction Authority had taken no prior corrective measure despite having been alerted by several area residents that dangerous methods were allegedly being adopted in the days before the incident.

It was only after the incident occurred that the BCA halted the excavation works and declared that they were not in conformity with the approved method for execution of the project submitted by the site architect on behalf of major developer Joseph Portelli.

Surprisingly, this architect was none other than the chairperson of the BCA, Maria Schembri Grima (who has since resigned), who wore the hats of both regulator and applicant at the same time.

Despite being a relatively unknown architect, Schembri Grima was appointed as the first chairperson of the BCA in 2021 and her appointment was renewed with effect from May 31, 2022, following the direct intervention of Prime Minister Robert Abela.

A report published by Shift News revealed that Abela had intervened to appease Portelli, in whose projects Schembri Grima is regularly involved, and his associates who are self-declared donors to the Labour Party.

This exposes the hypocrisy of Abela who, on November 1, 2020, had vouched publicly that he would not allow government authority heads to carry out private practice.

Abela said that he would not accept a situation where a CEO has their personal business to deal with while holding a government position. He argued that CEOs are paid twice their respective minister’s salary and should focus solely on the authority they are heading and their public sector job.

After Abela’s mask fell off, he continued to try to fool the people by saying that it was only at the point of the incident that Schembri Grima’s conflict of interest arose and her position became untenable. This amounts to sheer dishonesty.

Abela cannot be trusted. He has the narcissistic tendency of giving a false account of events and attributing his own shortcomings and mistakes to the former Nationalist government to protect his ego.

Abela has failed to mention the scandalous cases that took place under his disgraced predecessor, Joseph Muscat, such as when former Labour Party CEO James Piscopo was allowed to continue carrying out private consultancy work through his private company Undecim Five Investments after he was appointed CEO of Transport Malta with a yearly salary of €85,000 following Labour’s landslide victory in 2013.

Piscopo even had the arrogance to register his private company at the address of a property leased by Transport Malta. In June 2018, when Piscopo was appointed CEO of the Lands Authority, he failed to fulfil his obligation of disclosing his personal business interests.

A potential conflict of interest arose since Piscopo’s company was a shareholder in two companies with the Zammit Tabona family, which the Lands Authority was in direct negotiations with as the owners of Fortina Hotel regarding its request to build a 15-storey office block on land it had bought from the government exclusively for hotel extension. Fortina Hotel had agreed to sell the bloc to Bet365 for over €60 million before the necessary permit was eventually issued by the Planning Authority.

Besides, Piscopo was given a financial package as chair of the state company Automated Revenue Management Services Ltd while he held the position of CEO of Transport Malta.

James Piscopo even had the arrogance to register his private company at the address of a property leased by Transport Malta- Denis Tanti

One also recalls that Abela defended Johann Buttigieg to the hilt after the latter expressed his willingness to engage in a potential property business deal on an equality profits basis with Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder mastermind suspect Yorgen Fenech, while he held the position of CEO of the Planning Authority and at a time when Fenech’s link to his 17 Black company had already been revealed.

Labour’s arrogance knows no bounds.

We have arrived at a point where the same person has been appointed as CEO of two distinct government entities within the remit of the tourism ministry.

These entities are refusing to disclose the conditions of employment of their CEO who, over the past years, has received a separate salary for each of his two jobs. The responsible minister has even refused to explain this double appointment following a parliamentary question.

While the consequences of Schembri Grima’s conflict of interest were manifestly evident, the negative effect resulting from conflicts of interest of other persons heading government authorities may not be so obvious although equally harmful and wrong.

A particular case of conflict of interest where Abela went back on his commitment not to allow government authority heads carry out private practice concerns Josianne Cutajar, who ,shortly after Labour regained power in 2013, was appointed CEO of the government institution for the elderly St Vincent de Paul with a current yearly package exceeding €100,000.

Cutajar’s position is untenable because her financial interest in her private work as a general practitioner creates a conflict with her official duties, as in the case of Schembri Grima.

Cutajar allegedly uses her official position to obtain an unfair advantage as a private GP while her private clients try to take advantage of their personal relationship with her to obtain preferential treatment.

The very next day that a social media report made reference to an employee working at the reception area of St Vincent de Paul being assigned the duty of keeping appointments of Cutajar’s private patients during official working hours, the employee concerned was given a desk in Cutajar’s own secretariat where she could not be overheard receiving calls related to such appointments.

Abela practices the opposite of what he preaches. He cannot be taken seriously when he speaks of good governance and higher ethical standards.

He had repeatedly proved that good governance and the common good are not his priority.

Abela keeps rendering himself hostage to development moguls and other powerful business operators at the expense of the ordinary citizen, who remains disadvantaged and unnecessarily exposed to unfair and unjust practices.