The selection process for the new police commissioner has started. There is still some mystery surrounding the number of applicants. Most Maltese news sources reported eight had applied for the job, but NET news came up with the number of 14.

Whatever the number, the new police commissioner will be faced with a daunting task.

There will be no honeymoon period and the most pressing issue will be further investigations into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Was ‘Mr 17 Black’, the man who has been charged with the murder, solely responsible for the crime?

There are still so many questions which need to be answered. For example, why was Joseph Muscat texting Yorgen Fenech when he knew he was a chief suspect? Why did he invite him to his birthday party at Girgenti? Why did he accept the famous bottles of wine from him?

But, apart from all this, there will be many other mysteries to be solved.

I will limit myself to one.

There are many secrets about Ram Tumuluri and Vitals. This man is believed to have swindled us Maltese citizens out of millions of euros over the past four years. We are still giving away over €50 million a year, this time through the American company Steward.

There have been many questions about the mysterious set-up at Vitals. Despite the curiosity and the investigation of many, no one has yet managed to discover who the real ultimate beneficiary owner of this company is.

Maybe, one can get nearer to the solution if one investigates in Montenegro rather than in Malta.

In 2016, Daphne Caruana Galizia had revealed that Vitals was to sign a 30-year hospital contract identical to Malta’s “in corrupt Montenegro”.

Last month, The Shift News said “Konrad Mizzi flew to Montenegro eight times in a period of two years”. It has linked his trips to “dirty” energy and health projects in this country.

Jason Azzopardi recently divulged in parliament that, through the use of the ministerial and personal credit cards, he has got to know that every time Mizzi visited the capital of Montenegro, Podgorica, he always also went to Budva, around 60 kilometres away, and one time he even went to Tivat.

Budva is known for its quaint historical old town and for being the capital of ‘gambling tourism’ in Montenegro.

Tivat, instead, is renowned for being a luxury vacation resort and a marina for luxury yachts, called Porto Montenegro. Tivat airport is 12 kilometres away from Budva.

Did Mizzi go to Tivat and Budva on official government business or did he go there to appreciate the culture, the gambling or the luxury yachts?

The plot thickens because the Enemalta wind farm in Mozura is sited in the Ulcinj province, in the south of Montenegro.

If  Mizzi was there on official government business connected to the Enemalta project, it made no sense to sleep in Budva, over 50 kilometres away from Ulcinj and Mozura.

There will be no honeymoon period for the new police commissioner- Arnold Cassola

So why did Mizzi not stay in the Ulcinj province during his visits?

It seems we will not know because, for some mysterious reason, Energy Minister Michael Farrugia is refusing to publish the official meetings of Mizzi during all of his Montenegro trips.

The solution to Mizzi’s mysterious visits to Budva and Tivat might find its explanation in the 2016 article published by Ana Komatina in the Montenegro newspaper Vijesti.

The author writes that the Vitals project in Montenegro was planned in three phases: “The first, which should start next year, includes, among other things, new medical equipment and staff training. During the second phase, they would build new health centres in Budva and Tivat, a new regional hospital in Kotor and a general hospital in Herceg Novi, as well as a new clinical centre” (translation from Serbian). 

So Budva and Tivat were meant to be the two towns in Montenegro where the first hospitals were to be built by the supposedly Tumuluri- owned Vitals.

Could this explain Mizzi’s interest in visiting these towns, when supposedly on official ministerial business in the country?

As the Maltese government is refusing to publicise Mizzi’s official programme of visits, could it be he had a vested interest in visiting these towns because he is one of the ultimate beneficial owners of Vitals?

This is something which the newly-appointed police commissioner will have to find out.

Unless, of course, s/he turns out to be another spineless puppet of the prime minister, as most of the men occupying the post for the past seven years have been.

Arnold Cassola is former secretary-general of the European Greens.

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