Updated 4.20pm

A leading criminal lawyer has blamed an “incompetent and arrogant” civil servant for the lack of support staff in Malta’s court system.

In a blistering Facebook post, lawyer Franco Debono singled out permanent secretary Johann Galea for criticism, saying Galea’s failings were reflecting poorly on judges and magistrates.

“The truth is that many judges and magistrates are extremely efficient, but they face obstacles due to a lack of staff and resources,” Debono said, noting that a magistrate had made a similar point in open court on Monday.

Malta has some of the longest court delays in Europe, with cases often taking several years to end. The issue returned to prominence last week, when it emerged that a woman had filed domestic violence charges against her estranged husband, but that the case had been put off for 18 months. The woman was murdered last week.

Justice Minister Jonathan Attard has acknowledged the court delay problem, telling parliament last May that slashing waiting times is “a priority”. 

Since then, the government has also issued a public call to appoint new judges and magistrates.

In his Facebook post, Debono said that ensuring adequate staffing levels was squarely Galea’s responsibility, and yet the Justice Ministry’s top civil servant was failing miserably at the job.

“The government has a duty to explain to the people how you can run the Justice Ministry with a permanent secretary who is not only incompetent, but also arrogant,” Debono wrote of Galea.

Galea declined to comment when contacted.

Permanent secretaries are the most senior civil servants within ministries, and are responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of their respective ministries. 

Galea is a teacher by profession. He rose to serve as the head of Żejtun primary school before taking on more administrative roles in 2009, and was made permanent secretary in 2016 by then-Justice Minister Owen Bonnici. He has remained in that post in the ensuing years.  

For a short while earlier this year, Galea found himself in the unprecedented position of serving as the top civil servant in two separate ministries concurrently, serving as permanent secretary of both the Justice Ministry and Transport and Infrastructure Ministry.

That unorthodox situation was rectified in September, when the Tranport and Infrastructure Ministry appointed its own, new permanent secretary.