We may appear to be somewhat pedantic about Konrad Mizzi’s second audit that has not been published and which the minister and his ministry have been reticent answering questions about it. But the thing is that when a politician promises something he or she needs to be held to that pledge.

This principle stands for any matter, irrespective of how small or how large that matter is. And the audit into the minister’s financial affairs in the wake of the Panama Papers is certainly of the latter category.

As reported in today’s issue, both Dr Mizzi and the tax commissioner have not given any details on the status of the audit the former requested the latter to carry out on him in the wake of the publication of the Panama Papers. And while the Commissioner’s explanation is admittedly well-reasoned as far as the letter of the law is concerned, the minister’s failure to reply is wholly unacceptable.

As had been reported earlier this week, the minister, after being pressed by journalists, said that his much-maligned Panamanian company has been in the process of liquidation since January. And since the minister has made it clear in a statement that he would close that company down only when the tax commissioner completes his audit, not the audit commissioned to the international firm, that must mean one of two things.

Either Inland Revenue’s audit has been completed and the minister is not publishing it for one reason or another, or he has gone ahead and began shutting down the company prior to its completion. Either way, he has reneged on his pledge of “full disclosure on the dissolution process” because he began closing the company without telling anyone. And if the IRD’s audit has been completed, then why has the public not been informed and why has it not been published?

Whatever the case, we find it hard to believe that a company with nothing in it would take two to three months to be “liquidated”.

It may seem that we are flogging a dead horse with our determination to see that the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is revealed as regards this scandal. But the real truth of the matter is that this is any serious media’s very reason for existence. And we will continue to press the matter until that horse is well and truly dead.

Until then, the status and publication of that second audit will remain very much a large blip on our radar.

All told, the way Dr Mizzi and the government of which he forms part handled the whole Panama Papers affair was a textbook case of burying one’s head in the sand until the storm blows over – to make some cosmetic moves, appear concerned about the situation but, in reality, to ignore it altogether in the hope that public interest dies out and it will simply go away. That will not happen.

What is most troubling about the whole affair is that the minister and his government have failed a huge test in their accountability pledge, and many appear to have not even noticed. If there had been any will at all on the part of the government to tackle the abuses uncovered by the Panama Papers, there were plenty of ways in which it could have done that. But as we know by now, there was never any such will – only the will to close ranks, keep as quiet as possible and wait out the storm.

The media, and this publishing house in particular, will not let the matter rest and we will continue to press the subject until the whole truth comes out and justice is served.

This latest anomaly in the case of Dr Mizzi’s audits is pretty much par for the course in the government’s efforts of subterfuge in all things related to the Panama Papers scandal. From holding back from publishing the international firm’s audit until last February when the PANA Committee descended on Malta when it had in actual fact been signed off in September, to the minister’s recent declaration that the case has now been closed when it is anything but.

If there is really nothing to hide in this whole affair, a little honesty would be appreciated. Until that is given, the suspicions – not just those of the media but also those of the public – will not be allayed.