The Police Force has been accused of inaction when it comes to government corruption incessantly since the outbreak of the Panama Papers and, in most cases, that criticism has been justified and this newspaper has been at the forefront of demands for real investigations.

But when the police actually do investigate, there are so many people out there that find it too hard to believe. All things considered, they cannot be blamed.

But this week there were two cases in point when the police was seen taking action but those actions were seen as having been cases of too little, too late. Many will be surprised to hear that while we believe a whole lot more should have been done and still needs to be done to tackle rampant corruption, we do not completely concur with this viewpoint.

Let us start with the more obvious of the two cases: the Venezuelan money-laundering scheme in which the president of that economically-troubled South American country is believed to have been implicated to the tune of €160 million, with total funds laundered through a Maltese investment firm amounting to a staggering €511 million.

Those were funds effectively stolen from the Venezuelan people, spirited off to Malta where they were laundered, layered and hidden far from prying eyes, or so the launderers thought.

This newspaper broke the story two Sundays ago, after which most of the Maltese press picked up the story and ran with it. Soon after that, the Maltese police were reported to have raided the premises of the Maltese company.

Now they raid the offices, so many asked. Unlike the Pilatus case in which an allegation was made very publicly, allegations that virtually demanded that the bank ne raided there and then on the spot, this was another ballgame altogether. This was the result of a years-long investigation undertaken by the American authorities, with the full knowledge and cooperation of the Maltese authorities.

The timing is important here. This newspaper broke the story once the news was made public and when the arrests that could be made were made. Had the Maltese police gone and raided the Swiss-owned, Maltese-registered company anytime before that, the whole game would have been given away in the middle of a secret investigation.

As such, the innuendos doing the rounds that the culprits had been given plenty of time to cover their tracks, as had presumably happened in the Pilatus case, does not add up.

Now for the second case in point: the interrogation by the police on Thursday of one of Malta's lead Panama Papers accounts, the one that set up those infamous three companies in Panama right after the 2013 election. One for Konrad Mizzi, one for Keith Schembri and a third for an unnamed person who the accountant would only name on Skype, and not in writing - Egrant.

Here things get a lot more complicated. While there is no tangible link, at least on the surface, to Maltese politicians in the former scenario, the latter is riddled with them.

Granted, the show of having the accountant down at Police Headquarters could very well have been a case of going through the motions to appease the masses, but the fact that the police this week brought in an accountant linked to all things Panama Papers for questioning should, at least on the surface, be considered as a positive.

People are asking why he is being interrogated over two years after his, his clients' and his firm's dubious behaviour was brought to glaring light.

But the fact of the matter is that the accountant surely was not called in for questioning over the wider Panama Papers angle - the force has already said quite clearly that there is no reasonable suspicion of any crime having been committed in the wake of the Panama Papers information leaks and that they are not investigating per se.

Nothing along these lines has changed over the last two years and as such there is little reason to believe he was being investigated along those lines.

What has been concluded is the Egrant Inquiry and it is this that the police are undoubtedly following up on, possibly on that signature which the inquiry found to have been forged. That is something that the government, again at least on the surface, appears determined to get to the bottom of.

Now if the actual inquiry into the whole Panama Papers ever finds its way out of the appeal stage and actually gets off the ground and is finalised, there will be no doubt the accountant will be summoned to Police Headquarters again - either for show or for the real thing.

Whether that will be an actual case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted is a no-brainer because, let's face it, should that come to pass, that really will have been a case of too little, too late.