Robert Abela is insisting that the disability benefits scandal did not originate from the top. It was not masterminded either by Castille or Labour HQ. Is this supposed to make the fetid corruption stink less?

Witnesses speaking to Times of Malta have indicated the involvement of people working for Castille; others have spoken of ministerial aides and Labour operatives. But Abela says it has nothing to do with his government or Labour. 

When did we first hear that? Oh yes, when the walls closed in on the corruption around Joseph Muscat and his cronies. We were told it had nothing to do with the government or Labour. It was simply betrayal by a few bad apples.

Abela insists that Castille asked for a police investigation as soon as it learned of the first case. When it comes to what happened next, however, Abela is as unforthcoming as Muscat was when asked to explain his dealings with Keith Schembri, Konrad Mizzi and Yorgen Fenech.

If Abela was aware of the first case in late 2021, why did his government retain Grixti as ubiquitous government adviser and representative in 2022? Let’s brace ourselves for Muscat’s old excuse: the police told Abela he mustn’t act in a way that raised Grixti’s suspicions. 

If Abela was ready to clean up all abuse, why was the social policy ministry not informed of the corruption for another nine months? We’re left guessing this baby went through a delicate pregnancy and Abela was keen to protect the life of the mother.

And why did it take the ministry another year to set up an inquiry? Be not surprised to learn that the government didn’t want to interfere with the police investigation. I’m astonished we haven’t been told this already. 

But, for the sake of argument, let’s take Abela at his word. Let’s believe that this foul scheme arose independently of government and Labour leadership. The picture that emerges is hardly exculpatory. 

It clears Abela, as prime minister and party leader, of criminal activity. But it does not free him of political blame. 

For the scheme to work, the following had to happen. Vultures preyed on hundreds of people at risk of poverty. Hundreds, if not thousands, of official documents were forged, including the signatures of real medical specialists. A medical board barely scrutinised the documents; it did not wonder about the spike in severe disabilities in certain areas of Malta. 

In some cases, it seems Labour fixers felt confident enough to demand a year’s worth of benefits from the people they’re supposed to have helped defraud the government.

This is an organised racket, not a few bad apples. It wasn’t possible without the accomplices in a range of institutions. 

It also hinged on a culture of impunity. That’s where the daring came from.

Some witnesses have testified to being told the scheme was risk-free because nothing could happen to omnipotent Labour. 

You just have to ask: So, who’s in charge? It’s cabals everywhere you look- Ranier Fsadni

Another witness is reported to have told the police she was aware she didn’t qualify for the benefit but, since everyone was helping themselves to public money, she didn’t feel the need to hold back.

Such reports show that, even if the scheme was a private operation, it depended on Labour networks. It was enabled by a decade of impunity. Scandal after scandal about pigs feeding at the trough had led to nothing. No prosecutions, only transfers and musical chairs. Even quiet resignations were sometimes followed by a flow of government contracts.

Are we surprised that one beneficiary to this scheme should echo Rosianne Cutajar’s notorious remark about everyone pigging out? 

Even if the criminal scheme was independent of government and party, the political environment enabled it to work.

If Abela denies it, the burden is on him to explain why we should believe him. 

Once he’s done that, he needs to tell us why we should feel good about being told that freelance criminals could be so organised as to operate their wide net within government for (at least) three years without being detected. 

How is that exculpatory? It really means that the Labour government lost control. 

Line that up against the other times where we have been told that ministries had ceased to have effective control over things within their remit: the health minister over hospital privatisation; the finance minister over energy and hospital deals and loan guarantees; the environment minister over environmental policy; the energy minister over the price at which we buy our energy and the reliability of electricity supply; oh, and the cabinet over critical decisions because lacking relevant information. 

You just have to ask: So, who’s in charge? It’s cabals everywhere you look.

Abela will say some of those predicaments date to before his time. Yes, but he still has to live with them. 

The roots of the word corruption lie in the idea of breaking apart together.

Corruption refers, in the first place, to people and institutions that are morally broken. 

Nothing better captures the idea of a government that’s morally broken than a cabal that feels fearless about organising an intricately organised government racket and a prime minister, protesting his innocence, who takes two years to set up an inquiry.