Marek Maďarič used to be an influential politician in Slovak politics. He was made minister in 2012 and served in two cabinets. His last job in government was culture minister. He resigned in 2018, two days after journalist Ján Kuciak and his girlfriend Martina Kušnírová were found dead, gunned down execution-style.

Maďarič’s explanation for quitting at the time was stark: “Plainly said, as culture minister, I cannot put up with a journalist being murdered during my tenure.”

Two weeks later, a former cabinet colleague of his also resigned. Robert Kalinak was deputy prime minister but resigned because he was responsible for the police and felt responsible that a journalist had been killed on his watch. Three weeks later, Tibor Gašpar, the police chief who used to report to Kalinak, also resigned.

Meanwhile, Slovakia’s national security council secretary Viliam Jasaň resigned because he featured in Kuciak’s latest reporting, as did Mária Trošková who worked on the prime minister’s staff. They were clear that they had nothing to do with the murder but felt they should step down while the real culprits are found.

The Slovak prime minister found he could no longer count on the support ofhis parliamentary majority. Robert Fico also resigned.

There is no suggestion that any of these people were connected to Mr Kuciak’s assassination.

That month, Slovakia had presidential elections. The country chose Zuzana Čaputová who came up the ranks from environmental activism protesting waste mismanagement. Her first gesture was to visit a makeshift memorial to Kuciak in central Bratislava.

Now let’s consider some of our government ministers and officials.

Michael Farrugia was appointed minister for the police in 2017. He took over from Carmelo Abela who moved to the foreign office. Abela, in turn, had taken over from Manuel Mallia who resigned when his trigger-happy chauffer thought that shooting live bullets was a legitimate traffic calming measure.

Farrugia was minister in October 2017 when Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed. He was minister in January 2018 when he visited Cyprus a week before fake stories appeared on Cypriot media that said Maria Efimova was wanted for murder.

That also was the week when the Cyprus police issued an arrest warrant against the whistle-blower when a jeweller suddenly realised that an employee of his who left his workplace four years previously had stolen €40,000 from him.

Farrugia was minister when his office asked Greece to extradite Efimova and was turned down, twice. He was minister in November 2018 when he told the press that arrests of the masterminds behind Daphne’s killing were imminent. And he was minister when he retracted that statement.

Farrugia, absurdly, is still minister for the police.

When a policeman sees what the criminal is doing and does nothing to stop him, it is the policeman who is bent

This is not about drawing political blood to see someone politically suffer to appease the anger because a journalist has been killed. Toddlers think their knee will hurt less after a fall if mummy kisses it better.

This is about weeding out the incompetent or the complicit when the price of the messes they create is unacceptably high and the bleeding must be stopped.

Consider some of Farrugia’s decisions. He retains Lawrence Cutajar as police chief in spite of the fact that the Inter fan who has diagnosed Joseph Muscat as having metal testicles is clearly clueless.

He also retains Silvio Valletta as lead sleuth in spite of court orders to have him removed. Those orders were grounded in the fact that Valletta sleeps with a government minister and not because he investigated six fatal car bombings and failed to make a single arrest.

He also retains Ian Abdilla as chief of the stupendously though inexplicably named ‘economic crimes unit’ when his only credentials appear to be an above average skill in semi-professional photography.

Where has this got us?

The Moneyval report this week does not mince words. Almost everyone here does their job right. The civil service keeps up with developing international anti-money laundering legislative standards. The courts do not blink before they order ill-gotten assets frozen. The financial services community is busy attracting as much clean business to the country as they possibly can.

The weakest link in all this? The police. Moneyval found Malta’s police unable or unwilling to enforce the law.

And word has spread. Malta is a crook’s paradise.

When a criminal commits a crime, they’re in the wrong. But when a policeman sees what the criminal is doing and does nothing to stop him, it is the policeman who is bent.

Ian Abdilla. Silvio Valletta. Lawrence Cutajar. They had intelligence about money-laundering committed by government ministers, their cronies and hangers on, their campaign funders, their silent partners, their bankers and their international sponsors. And they sat back and did nothing.

Think about it. The US has indicted Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad. The European Central Bank has shut down his bank, Pilatus. And yet, Malta’s police have not charged anyone – anyone at all – with any crime committed at Pilatus Bank.

It’s just one example. Satabank went on long leave because the MFSA found persistent breaches of anti-money laundering rules. No one has been charged.

Pavel Menlikov had his real estate company raided in Finland for money laundering. Mustafa Abdel Wadood has been charged in the US for fraud and conspiracy. Liu Zhongtian has been indicted for smuggling and dodging billions in tax. Boris Mints has had his assets frozen in London on suspected money laundering. The names sound exotic but they’re all Maltese. Has anyone been charged for giving these people Maltese citizenship even if they’re crooks?

Malta-licensed Italian-owned online casinos were shut down because the Italians charged the owners with laundering mafia money. Their local partners moved on, setting up new businesses with other Italian partners. The mafiosi’s money in Italy is seized. The mafiosi’s money in Malta isn’t.

Of course, the argument cannot stop at the boys in blue. They report to Michael Farrugia. He feels no pressure to resign because he has been doing the bidding of Joseph Muscat. Muscat will resign in his own sweet time – which may be very soon – but declaredly for altogether different reasons.

The failure of these people to police money-laundering risks costing tens of thousands of people their living. We may be looking at the glorious red sunset over the ‘best of times’. A rough night may be ahead. And we have been brought to this by the greedy, the lazy, the incompetent and the corrupt.

But all these people report to someone. Maďarič, Kalinak, Gašpar, Jasaň, Trošková and Fico did not resign their office because they had an uncomfortable conversation with their conscience. They resigned because of public outcry. The people of Slovakia would not have their lives run by people who could not prevent a journalist being killed.

It was not just that they were angry about Kuciak and his girlfriend ending up riddled with bullets. It is that of course. But it is also the obvious question of what other catastrophes these people could allow under their watch. Here’s different.

The incompetent and the corrupt do not get to resign because we don’t ask them to. Not in any significant number anyway. The reward we get: if you think the Moneyval report hurts, wait for the afterburn.