Following comments by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat that Identity Malta is “running smoothly” and that, according to him, no internal exercise was conducted by the agency to establish how many people have more than one ID Card number, The Malta Independent on Sunday is publishing the leaked documents (see bottom of story) that show what Identity Malta Chairman Joe Vella Bonnici (below) was up to in the past weeks in an attempt to establish the extent of the crisis he has at hand.

Last Sunday, this newspaper reported that Identity Malta – the entity created by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to execute the functions and duties of the public administration in matters relating to passports, identity documents, work and residence permits for expatriates, land registration and registration of public deeds, acts of civil status and individual investment programmes – is facing an internal crisis with the ‘collapse’ of the ID cards system one year ahead of a general election.

An internal report leaked to this newspaper by sources in Identity Malta showed that out of a sample of 300 people on the ID card registry 80 have been found to have more than one ID card, with five even holding three under the same name but with three different ID numbers. The places of birth of those with three ID cards are Egypt (2), Tunisia (2) and Australia (1).

However, the Prime Minister either is misinformed or is covering up for Identity Malta to save face for his government after the revelations made by this newspaper last Sunday. In comments to the media, he even said that it was this newspaper that had conducted the exercise, and not Identity Malta.

But in the documents being published today, one can clearly note how it is impossible for an independent newsroom to conduct such a thorough report without having access to Identity Malta’s database. In the documents published today it can be clearly seen that during the internal exercise conducted by Identity Malta, a column was created under the heading ‘ACTION’ in which Identity Malta officials described the situation of each and every person found to have more than one ID Card.

The Malta Independent on Sunday reported that the problem is so complex that an internal inquiry had been ordered some weeks ago. While both the Prime Minister and Minister for Justice and Culture Owen Bonnici (above) denied there is a crisis, they never denied that 80 out of 300 were found to have more than one ID card number. They even failed to acknowledge just how big the ‘collapse’ of the system is, and how many people actually have more than one ID Card.

“Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is misguided on the internal crisis Identity Malta is going through and should check his facts before jumping to conclusions that all is fine at the agency,” was the reaction of our source who leaked the internal document after hearing what the Prime Minister had to say on the matter.

Referring to remarks made in Parliament by PN Deputy Leader Beppe Fenech Adami, who claimed that he had information that a person had two ID cards, our source also said that “not even the Opposition has an idea of how big this ‘collapse’ is”.

Opposition and PN Leader Simon Busuttil (above) reacted to last Sunday’s story in this newspaper by warning the government that the Opposition will not let the governing party “fiddle with democracy”.

After the publication of the leaked documents, our source in Identity Malta said that the agency’s chairman, also a former PL candidate, Joe Vella Bonnici has reacted very badly to the disclosure and a witch-hunt for the whistle-blower who leaked the documents took place at Identity Malta over the course of the week.

One would have thought that the government would demand an explanation from Mr Vella Bonnici, but instead both the Prime Minister and the Minister responsible for Identity Malta came out defending the agency.

Our sources told this newsroom that throughout the week nothing new was established on the extent of the ‘collapse’. So far only one sample of 300 persons who were born in foreign countries but who, for a valid reason, cannot provide a birth certificate was taken in which it was revealed that over a quarter (26.6 per cent) of the sample proved to have two or more valid ID cards under the same name.

Joseph Church - chief electoral commissioner

An absolute silence on the matter from the Electoral Commission could be observed throughout the week following the revelations by this newspaper. The ‘collapse’ of Identity Malta’s system has created an unprecedented problem for the Electoral Commission since it is the body constituted to issue regular electoral directories according to which people can obtain a voting document.

Identity Malta is no stranger to controversy since its early days in existence. It has gone through one crisis after another, initially with the politically charged and controversial Individual Investment Programme (IIP), which supposedly requires foreigners buying a Maltese/EU passport to reside in Malta for a period of time and buy or rent a residence.

The agency also faced problems with the issue of visas and that of former PL Financial Secretary and election candidate, accountant Joe Sammut, who was charged with fraud, misappropriation of funds, money laundering and the falsification of documents by allegedly helping Libyans obtain residence permits and creating fictitious companies.