Political responsibility for Central Visa Unit shifted days after spot-check found €7,000 and passports locked in employee’s personal drawer

David Lindsay In January 2016, Identity Malta and the Central Visa Unit were somewhat inexplicably moved from the remit of Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela to that of Justice Minister Owen Bonnici, with the government, at the time, having put the change down to a “re-engineering” exercise.

But a whistleblower who has come forward to this newspaper has shed light on what could very well have been the determining cause of the move.

Among a raft of documents supplied to this newspaper — detailing rackets involving the issuance of Maltese visas for Libyans, Algerians, unsavoury characters who would normally not be granted visas to enter Malta, as well as new information on the medical visas scandal — are details of the curious incident of the change of ministerial remit.

According to our source, who has decided to spill several cans of beans relating to the dubious visa business, legal pressure had led the authorities to carry out a spot-check at the Central Visa Unit in mid-January 2016.

That spot-check had concentrated on one particular employee, a person who was alleged to have been a central cog in a racket involving hundreds of visas for Libyan nationals. And when that employee’s workstation was searched, €7,000 were found locked in a personal drawer along with a number of passports that were unaccounted for.

The employee, together with another, were suspended on the spot, according to our source, and less than 10 days later, on 22 January, political responsibility for Identity Malta and the Central Visa Unit was shifted to the portfolio of Minister Bonnici.

Also according to our source, a Maltese national, the employee then left the Central Visa Unit but no further action was taken.