The Prime Minister’s decision to appoint as Permanent Secretary in his Office a public officer who is under indictment for several serious criminal offences that he allegedly committed by abusing the public authority he held, amounts to contempt towards the Attorney General and towards the court which has yet to decide on the charges he is facing.
Prime Minister Robert Abela in public remarks he made yesterday expressed a judgment on the prosecution this individual is facing along with many others, chief among them former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. Robert Abela made what he described as an evaluation of the prosecution being carried out by the Attorney General and arrived at a judgment on a case that still has months and years to be heard.
It is truly the end of the separation of powers and democracy when the Prime Minister summarily decides on the criminal guilt or innocence of his friends, instead of the court doing so as is appropriate.
Fortunately, despite the premature and incompetent judgment of the Prime Minister, the proceedings against Joseph Muscat and his friends do not stop there.
It is therefore doubly abusive that Robert Abela appointed to public office a person under an indictment of serious crimes allegedly committed through abuse of public office. This is not only irony. This is also contempt for the public service.
The office of permanent secretary is a constitutional position. Anyone who occupies that office is expected to adhere to the values of the Constitution, at the core of which is respect for the rule of law. Furthermore, the figure of permanent secretary represents the governance of our country. It is an unacceptable contradiction to be in such an office while answering for serious criminal charges.
The individual concerned did the right thing by resigning from the position he held when he was accused. He has since ended up under indictment and is therefore less than ever fit to be a permanent secretary in the Maltese administration.
There is no doubt that with this act Robert Abela is exerting illegitimate pressure on the courts to decide as he wants and to leave Joseph Muscat and his clique without consequence for the grave corruption they are accused of having committed.