Is it any wonder that there has been no public outcry following the publication, the other day, of a damning report by the Auditor General on (a) the gross maladministration at the Voice of the Mediterranean radio station, and (b) the catalogue of administrative misdemeanours involving public finances?

The Maltese and Libyan governments set up that radio outfit jointly in l984. Its operations were wound up in 2003. Most of the aberrations and blatant irregularities highlighted by the Accountant General were public knowledge three years ago. The Auditor General merely confirmed them.

The unstated new factor that seems to emerge from the report is that no disciplinary action was ever taken, and no action was initiated to recover money lost to the public purse. The whole issue was swept under the carpet until the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament (PAC) asked for an inquiry.

Were it not for the PAC initiative, the matter would have been relegated to oblivion, to be lost in the wash, as politicians flit from one furore to the other, all involving allegations of corruption and abuse of power.

Distortions

Perplexed citizens ask each time: Where do we go from here?

The answer is that they find themselves going round in circles. Our system of governance is not functioning with optimum efficiency. It is wide open to distortion. It is exposed to abuse by rapacious operatives. It is not effectively protected by rigid disciplinary vigilance. It is a hunting ground for buccaneers from inside as well as outside the bureaucracy, going up to the highest levels.

All the evidence shows that the “buccaneers” have won the day. Although there is no shortage of allegations involving corruption and abuse, heads hardly ever roll and resignations are far too few and very far between at that.

It is this seemingly inbred malaise that is the root of all evil. We have no established system of automatic, judicial, independent and transparent investigation when corruption and abuse of power is detected or denounced on the basis of circumstantial or other evidence.

On the contrary, it often happens that partisanship takes over. The suspects are either lionised, or beatified as martyrs, and whistleblowers are intimidated, if not victimised.

Was it not Shakespeare who said that lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds?

And who was it who said that in Malta corruption is “institutionalised”?

Harsh truth

The harsh truth is that corruption is like a ball of snow. Once it is set in motion, it gets larger and, as it gathers momentum, it becomes irresistible.

Corruption does serious damage to the standards of public life, the institutions of government, the cohesion of society and the management of the economy. It is particularly harmful in developing economies, where the political fabric may be thinner, civil society less closely knitted, and the economy by definition fragile. It raises costs and blunts competitiveness. It distorts the management of the economy, making it more difficult at times to gauge the exact consequences on investment, spending, and regulatory decisions.

It also warps policy-making in other ways. I recall reading the reflections of Chris Patten on the subject where he said that “just as hefty dollops of concessional financing can entice governments into undertaking too many big projects, so too can bribes. If you are spending the government’s money on building primary schools, and roads, and health centres, the chances of skimming a large percentage of the top of the price of the work are much less than if you are building a power station or buying a frigate or a squadron of fighter aircraft” (East of Suez Macmillan p.254).

The rule of law

An economic system purged or, at least, resistant to graft is far more likely where there exists the most important software of a free and democratic society – the rule of law.

This means a system where everyone is subject to the law, however mighty one is. The rule of law is not a convenient justification for the powerful, nor a legalistic cover for locking up or inhibiting people the government does not like.

It applies equally to those who govern and to the governed, to lawmakers and law abiders.

In a free society under the rule of law, with a fairly elected legislature that makes the laws itself, the ruled are also the rulers.

It has been well said that the law is not a ceremonial hulk. It lives and breathes. Without it, there is no market economy, but a jungle economy – whether it is so declared or not.

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