The much-maligned Panamanian company owned by Minister Konrad Mizzi is still open, despite the minister’s pledge to close it down once the audit into his financial affairs was completed.

The company, Hearnville Inc., has not been closed down and is still an active entity according to information from the Panamanian Registry of Companies.

The minister’s audit had been signed off by the auditing firm engaged to perform the task on 21 September 2016, but it had only been made public five months later, on 20 February, to coincide with the fact finding visit to Malta of the PANA, aka Panama Papers, Committee.

But almost five weeks down the road since the audit finally saw the light of day, the company is still very much open. It has been a further six months since the audit was signed off by Crowe Horwath New Zealand Audit Partnership.

Dr Mizzi had commissioned the audit back in February 2016 at the onset of the Panama Papers scandal but until it was published last month, the whole affair had been shrouded in secrecy.

This newsroom had reported in early January that Dr Mizzi’s audit had been signed, sealed and delivered and that its release had been carefully planned to coincide with last month’s fact-finding mission by the European Parliament’s PANA Committee.

And, just as reported, Dr Mizzi’s long-awaited audit was presented to the committee, even though it had been gathering dust since 21 September while journalists’ persistent questions about its status were continually fobbed off.

Now comes the next stage in Mizzi’s long-winding audit saga, the awaited confirmation that his Panamanian company has been closed down once and for all. But given the minister’s track record as far as anything concerning his audit is concerned, it is anyone’s guess as to when that will actually be done.