What is the PM waiting for?
The government has not yet published the Gozo drugs inquiry report, despite the document having been handed to the PM as early as Tuesday.
The inquiry, led by lawyer John Vassallo, was tasked with looking into some very serious allegations involving two senior politicians and a police drugs investigation. According to the original reports, two Gozitan youths who had admitted to drug trafficking changed their statements after their families, who are well-known in Gozo, met with two senior politicians at a government building in Victoria. As a result of the revised statements, the youths were not prosecuted.
The government then appointed an inquiry, which was initially headed by lawyer Frank Testa. This did not go down well with the PN, which pointed out that Dr Testa had clearly shown himself to be a PL supporter. When the lawyer stepped down, on separate issues, the government appointed Dr John Vassallo in his stead. Dr Vassallo is a former PL candidate. The PN once again complained, saying that the inquiry could not be expected to be impartial if a former PL candidate was tasked with investigating two (Labour) ministers.
Dr Vassallo handed in his report on Tuesday but the PM asked for some clarifications. Dr Muscat was given the final report on Wednesday evening, with the OPM saying that the findings would be made public once they were duly analysed. That has not happened yet.
The question is: why is the OPM taking so long? The way we see it, this should be a straightforward job. If no ministers were involved then the government should just say so and move on. If they were involved then Dr
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Muscat should sack them on the spot.
One hopes that the report isn’t being delayed by the Prime Minister to have its conclusions spanned in a Sunday newspaper of the Prime Minister’s choice. While the OPM delays the publication, several theories have emerged.
One theory is that two ministers are in fact guilty of interfering in a police investigation but the Prime Minister, with an election so close, is afraid of the fallout of this would-be new scandal.
If it is true that Gozo Minister Anton Refalo is somehow involved, losing him at this juncture could prove to be a big blow for Labour considering they are struggling to retain the newly found majority in Gozo, which was traditionally PN-leaning for many years. Sacking him would surely not help the PL secure another win in the 13th district. On the other hand, Dr. Refalo is under attack from PL friendly media, which elicits suspects that someone in Castile wants him out of the way.
The other minister that is being mentioned is Manuel Mallia, who was the police minister when the case happened in 2013. Dr Mallia, has already been sacked once during this legislature (over his driver’s shooting fiasco). Dismissing him for a second time would only serve to show a lack of judgement by the PM when he entrusted him with another cabinet post. But can the PM sack Mallia? He has already shown to be weak in front of the lawyer who switched to Labour after so many years supporting the PN. With him, Mallia brought to the PL many others who followed in his footsteps.
PN Leader Simon Busuttil has said that he believes the ministers involved are the Gozo minister and either the Police Minister or the PM himself. This because only the PM and the police minister are accompanied by police outriders with flashing blue lights. If the inquiry report somehow mentioned the PM, Joseph Muscat would surely have an even bigger problem in making this public.
Another theory goes that the people found guilty by the inquiry are resisting dismissal, and are telling the PM that he did not take action against Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri over the Panama affair so he cannot take action against them.
But then again some ministers, Manuel Mallia included, were dismissed from the cabinet for things far less serious than what is being alleged here.
The most likely scenario is that the spin doctors of Castille are working round the clock to see how the findings can be presented in a way that deals the least damage to the government. One thing they have been up to is to drum up a campaign on the Capital One case which was allegedly dropped by the Police when they discovered that PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami was a director of a subsidiary of the Dutch company under investigation. This strategy has become a pattern easy to identify.
But if the Gozo one was really a case where political interference led to the abandonment of a police investigation on drug trafficking then there is nothing to spin and nothing to procrastinate on. Those involved must go, now. The PM has the report in hand. He should tell us what’s in it – the truth and nothing but the truth. And he should do it today, not when it is convenient for the government.