Is this government writing a crooks’ charter, or what? It takes ‘anything goes’ to new limits – except, of course, if you are one of its opponents or refuse to collaborate with it and make nice with Joseph Muscat and his extensive collection of tacky people from all walks of life. Now the Transport Minister has said that there is no need for John Dalli’s consultant, Mark Sammut, to resign from Transport Malta’s board of directors because running an illegal hotel “does not conflict with his duties at Transport Malta”.

Mizzi’s spokesman told this newspaper: “The Ministry does not see any justification for asking Dr Sammut to resign from his position.”

Talk about missing the point...deliberately. Sammut’s resignation should be demanded (it is too much to expect it voluntarily) not because of any conflict of interest but because he is the co-owner of an  illegal hotel and continues to do so. Running an illegal hotel is not some minor misdemeanour. More crucially, he is a director of a state regulator but is seeking to out-fox, defy and undermine another state regulator. That position is untenable, even if the law-breaking were not enough.

So now we have a situation where the newly appointed chief of the Malta Tourism Authority is facing press questions about an illegal hotel owned by a director of the Malta Transport Authority. This is ridiculous, and if the Maltese public were normal rather than deranged by ice buckets and chants of Taghna Lkoll, they would consider it deeply offensive. But the government is taking as much advantage as it can of the fact that right now, it can get away with murder, do its worst and people in their derangement will still say how wonderful it all is and that they made the right and proper choice.

Mark Sammut was never going to be asked for his resignation. You just have to ask why a complete nonentity like him was appointed to the board of a state regulator in the first place and hasn’t even proved himself: Taghna Lkoll, and all that.

The absolute nerve of this man Sammut is that he has been bidding for government tenders via a one-man company registered to a room at his illegal Hotel Damiani, a block of flats which he has ‘converted’ without the required planning and tourism board permits into a hotel of sorts.

And while we are on the subject, exactly what has become of the Dalli-and-daughter team who had installed themselves at Mater Dei Hospital with full approval of the prime minister, all geared up to run the show? Have they done what they wanted to do and now bothered off, or has Health Secretary Chris Fearne slammed the door in their faces? I think we deserve to be told.

Meanwhile, as chaos reigns at the general hospital, with overcrowding and staff and doctors complaining, what is Fearne doing? That’s right: he’s keeping busy with women who don’t wish to suckle their infants, and arm-twisting distributors of formula milk by telling them that if they don’t voluntarily stop advertising their milk he will issue a legal notice to ban them from doing so.

Any moment now and he will be lining up his midwives for an ice bucket challenge and nominating those who sell powdered milk to take the next one.

 

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