Identity crisis
The crisis at Identity Malta, highlighted by this newsroom when we published a set of leaked documents which were first branded as fake news by the Prime Minister but later declared as authentic by Identity Malta, is far from over.
In a meeting highly advertised by Minister for Justice and Culture Owen Bonnici, with three editors from The Malta Independent, it was assured by Identity Malta that there exists no crisis, and that the leaked documents were simply a routine exercise to establish why people with an ID Card that ends with a ‘P’, meaning provisional, had, in the ID Card system, another number assigned to them ending with an ‘L’.
During that meeting, The Malta Independent content Director Pierre Portelli stressed that the fact that such an exercise was carried out, and the fact that it was first denied than later confirmed showed that something must be wrong at Identity Malta.
Than came the news that not all is rosy between the Electoral Commission and Identity Malta. This was again confirmed in the chit-chat which took place during the meeting with the editors from this newsroom.
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It was explained that for some reason which apparently Identity Malta doesn’t approve of, the Electoral Commission prefers to add all citizens with new residency documents to the electoral registry and leave it to the parties to find out who is eligible and who’s not for a voting document.
Up until the day before Identity Malta was born, ID Cards, residency permits and all other security documents including the electoral registry fell under the same body. This made it possible to avoid conflicts such as those we are hearing of today. But as things stand today, the Electoral Commission is completely dependent on Identity Malta and if something is wrong at the agency then the Commission cannot but hope that its fixed from their end.
The other day, when three editors from this media house met up with Identity Malta to be assured that all works smoothly at the agency, three cases of people with double entries in the electoral registry were forwarded. Two of them had been published by this newsroom but the third one was presented to the Minister on the spot. Instantly, one of the operatives was dispatched to check it out.
The person with two entries in the registry had been struck off towards the end of March. One wonders how these cases continue to crop up. The point made by this newsroom was that the country deserves a clear picture of the situation. The answer to that came from another Identity Malta official around the table who read from a document, an audit by EY International, that certified the operation.
One editor asked for a copy of the document but this request was immediately declined. “We need to get clearance, its highly sensitive,” said the man. One working day later the document was pasted on MaltaToday. That’s how serious Identity Malta turns out to be. In a clear attempt to ridicule this newsroom and punish it for publishing documents leaked to it, Identity Malta finds time to play cat and mouse.
The national agency responsible for our identity status seems to have itself an identity crisis.
It needs to wake up and start acting like a real agency, there to serve the citizens and not turn itself into a Labour Party club.