J. G. Vassallo

Speaking during a live talk show on the Nationalist Party radio on 1 November, l998, the then Finance Minister John Dalli spoke of the government’s resolve to step up efforts to curb tax evasion and to improve tax collection.

He took the opportunity to point out that, of the 43,000 taxpayers or enterprises registered with the CET Department at that time, almost 23,000 declared their turnover not to exceed Lm3,000 And he disclosed further that there were fewer than 1,000 taxpayers who declared an annual income in excess of Lml0,000 and the majority of these were employees.

It emerges from a very recent parliamentary reply by Dr Lawrence Gonzi to Nationalist MP Joseph Cassar, that some progress has been registered since that time. The figures indicate that there are more than l5,000 taxpayers in this bracket. The Inland Revenue Department has, to some extent, improved its surveillance as well as its performance. The arrival on the scene of the Tax Compliance Unit must have helped to improve matters.

Why is it that there is no regular publication of official statistics that throw light on fiscal performance, exposing this whole area to public scrutiny?

Ingrained culture

We know from the annual reports of the Auditor General that outstanding annual arrears of revenue run into the hundreds of millions of liri, but there is no way for the taxpaying public to know from time to time whether the situation is being addressed and, if so, with what success. Meanwhile, unscrupulous citizens evade their commitments to the collective tune of millions of liri with seeming impunity.

Tax evasion is an ingrained culture. It is only one facet of an insidious culture. Considered in the mass, this has assumed the nature of a cancerous growth that calls for surgery.

The time has come to wage war on corrupt practices on an organized, systematic, national scale.

Corruption undermines development, dissuades investment and destabilises the democratic process.

Anti-corruption sentiments have been rising all over the world – not only in the developing world and emerging markets, but also in advanced industrialised countries.

Retribution

In the absence of effective action, corruption is followed by retribution.

Local defences against corruption are by no means tight. The laws of prescription have been providing shelter to criminals as well as politicians whose misdeeds are detected late in the day or are allowed to drag on interminably until they are lost in the wash.

Active politicians are required to submit declarations of assets in the interests of transparency, but there is no independent system for the assessment and the accurate verification of these declarations.

At the same time, we do not know whether or not the assets of senior civil servants, customs officials and the fat cats in charge of public enterprises are openly monitored, in such a way as to satisfy the rules of transparency and accountability, and, if so, how and by whom.

Political party campaign financing is not effectively controlled and political party fund-raising is altogether beyond the pale of the law and is vulnerable to sinister possibilities.

The steady escalation of government expenditure involving major public contracts exposes public officials and politicians to big temptations necessitating more rigid measures in the interests of accountability.

Unresolved allegations

Nevertheless, accusations alleging varying degrees of corruption are regularly flung into the year with abandon, most of them petering out or vanishing into thin air with the passage of time

It is bad enough that, when the odour of corruption fouls the air, strenuous efforts are made to change the subject of public discussion. It is even worse that, when serious accusations are made, it is only in very rarely that matters are referred to independent judicial investigations. Public accountability is more a myth than a fact .The culture of resignations is practically extraneous to our system.

The solution calls for all-round political will and a solid determination to break new ground in the fight against corruption. The lack of accountability of politicians and civil servants has been considered by the World Bank to have played a major role in preventing sustainable development from taking root in a number of countries.

Why is there no provision at Maltese law for major corruption cases to be treated with urgency in the courts and with priority over routine cases?

Why are disciplinary proceedings involving civil servants, and relating to corrupt practices in whatever form, not conducted in public?

Wake-up call

What ground rules exist for the holding of workshops and for the organisation of surveys, involving public sector officials, to raise awareness of the causes and consequences of corruption?

The time for a wake-up call to clean the stables seems to me to be overdue.

But nothing has changed, and nothing is likely to change, unless the responsible politicians shake off their somnolence and move forward with resolve.

Aristotle famously said that “no notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye” and Aesop said, ahead of Aristotle, “destroy the seed of evil, or it will grow up to your ruin”.

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