My poor friend Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici must be waking up in the morning with “l-Imniehru” on his mind. For professional reasons, Carmelo and I have been friends for a very long time now, although we belong to different political parties. I must say that I am very sad that this scandal has fallen in his lap. There are other ministers in Dr Gonzi’s cabi-net who have themselves committed mistakes and carry on surviving that it’s a shame that there is so much inevitable focus on the parliamentary secretary for justice these days.

The cleaning contract saga continues to take new twists and turns. I don’t think that the deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg and PS Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici are managing the crisis well. It has now been revealed, again by the Malta Labour Party, that a cleaning contract was not only awarded to relatives of inmate Mario Camilleri l-Imniehru at the law courts but also at the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry at the Auberge D’Aragon.

Now I can’t say who decided to award the contract inside Malta’s administrative home for security and good order. But on account of the ministry’s mission statement and the importance it attaches to national security, whoever was responsible at the administrative end for this lapsus should have had the decency to present his resignation to the minister without batting an eyelid and spare him the embarrassment. Unless, of course, the political masters were directly involved.

Awarding such a contract at the courts of justice was already very much in bad taste in view of the fact that the case of the alleged corruption of two senior judges is far from dead and buried.

Awarding the contract to the same company at the Justice and Interior Ministry is like adding insult to injury. The company’s employees have been cleaning the offices at Auberge d’Aragon while the government of the Republic of Malta, which is responsible for the prosecution of all criminal action by operation of the law, is still pursuing criminal action against Mario Camilleri.

It is difficult to understand why both the minister and the parliamentary secretary did not reveal, from the outset, that the cleaning contract was also awarded to the same company at Auberge D’ Aragon. Had they done so the moment the case was first revealed at the law courts, they would have been in a better position to brave the storm on both fronts. Now the perception is that they tried to keep the lid on the boiling cauldron of political controversy by hoping that nobody would bother to check further and the matter would not escalate. But that was a big mistake. With a nosy opposition, there was no way the ministry could hide it.

I am never in the mood to call for heads to roll. I had already done so in 2000 when, in the face of a spate of great escapes from the Corradino Correctional Facility, I had to call for Dr Tonio Borg’s resignation in Parliament, something I did not like doing although it was definitely within my remit. It is not a pleasure to do so. Indeed it is an intolerable burden. But we are in politics and people expect high standards of transparency and accountability.

The deputy Prime Minister is on record as stating that the mistake is alien to political responsibilities and demoted the scandal to one of administrative proportions. If he had the gall to pass the buck to the Director General at the Law Courts, then why has he not asked for his resignation? As a face-saving gesture he could have always refused it, but could have shown that someone – at least someone – had assumed responsibility. This applies also in respect of the permanent secretary at the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry, who is ultimately responsible for administration at the courts and obviously at the ministry.

Make no mistake. The matter is serious and warrants political attention from the powers that be. Malta should not be a banana republic, where ministers flash smiles at ribbon-cutting ceremonies but disappear whenever the going gets tough. Somebody, somewhere, has to be responsible. Since the deputy Prime Minister and his Parliamentary Secretary carry on refusing to take the bull by the horns, no wonder that a matter that could resolve itself administratively is very well turning into a political nightmare for both.

Dr Gulia is the opposition’s main spokesman on Home Affairs