Buy him a one-way ticket to Panama

In the end, the idea to have Konrad Mizzi as head of Malta’s delegation at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe was mercifully scrapped, the morning after it was first proposed. That the government, after obtaining legal advice, later also terminated with immediate effect the lucrative consultancy job Mizzi was given by the Malta Tourism Authority two weeks after resigning as minister responsible for that same authority is also welcome.

But these two instances should never have happened.

It should not have even crossed anyone’s mind to make Mizzi Malta’s representative on the international stage, whatever that stage is. And, probably worse than this, it should have never occurred to the Malta Tourism Authority to offer him a job – or accept this idea if it came from Mizzi himself.

Thankfully – and we say this with great relief – the government reversed both decisions within 24 hours after public outcry.

But the matter should not end here.

There’s more that needs to be looked into. The Konrad Mizzi contract came about in the period between the day Joseph Muscat announced his resignation as Prime Minister and the day he actually walked out of Castille as PM for the last time. It was a time when Muscat was simply there to serve as a caretaker prime minister.

It was also at the height of a political crisis, with thousands of people protesting in the streets, almost daily. Suspicions surrounding why there was a six-week delay have abounded. Now that the Mizzi job was revealed, the government would do well to see whether it was only Mizzi who was given an iced bun in those six weeks. Maybe there were others.

Prime Minister Robert Abela should order a thorough exercise into this, and terminate any other contracts which were sealed in the same way Mizzi’s was. The Opposition’s request for the €80,000 a year contract – which, remember, is higher than the salary received by the prime minister – to be brought before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee should not be ignored either. If rules were broken, those responsible should pay the price.

One good thing in all that has happened over the last two days is that we now know that the government has realised what the rest of the population has long understood – that Konrad Mizzi is, politically, a huge burden on the country. Better late than never, one can say.

The Panama Papers scandal is only one situation in which he brought shame to Malta, and yet he shamelessly continues to think that he could offer some kind of valid contribution.

Let us not forget that his portfolio as Energy and Health Minister was taken away in one legislature and then he resigned as Tourism Minister in the following one. His two ministerial appointments both ended in disgrace. How can anyone still have faith in such a politician?

He should be nowhere near the government, nowhere near decision-making bodies and nowhere near government agencies or authorities.

What the Labour Party should do next is prohibit him from contesting the next election. And buy him a one-way ticket to Panama.