The main reason, apart from fudging of figures, which caused Greece to spiral into financial and economic meltdown was crass governmental incompetence, corruption and greasing of palms.

Just like many other southern European nations – this was an open secret. Italy, Spain, Portugal and others have the very same problems. Yet, Malta is a slightly different animal. Like in Cyprus (another small Mediterranean island nation), corruption does exist, however the levels are much lower than one would find on the mainland. Incompetence in the civil service also exists, and this probably stems from the fact that a number of people in Malta are given jobs according to their connections and political affiliation rather than on merit.

Wednesday’s publication of two reports commissioned by the government highlighted two such incidences of corruption and incompetence. The first involved a report about the Licensing and Testing Department which was drawn up after Opposition MP Joe Mizzi made allegations of corruption.

The second was a report which recommended that three heads should roll in the Education Ministry as a result of the suspension of EU funds in the Lifelong Learning and Youth in Action programmes.

Let us start with the licensing issue. The report found that out of 127 tested cases since 2001 – there were 85 cases which were questionable as to whether people had sat for an exam before being given their licence. 12.5 per cent of a sample showed suspect results whereby people were given a licence without paying for it and that 60 per cent of these suspect cases were processed by the same clerk. There were other issues within the department which were found to be suspect. One has to take this into the context of people already having been found guilty of taking bribes at the said department in the not too distant past.

The education funding issue saw a board of inquiry concluding that the permanent secretary within the education ministry, the Director for Policy Development and the EUPA National Co-ordinator’s positions are “no longer tenable”. In short, after repeated warnings of possible suspension of funding, the European Commission stopped funding simply because things were not being done properly. As mentioned, there were repeated warnings and these were not heeded. In addition, the board of inquiry mentioned that it was “unfortunate” that the Maltese permanent representation in Brussels and the EU Secretariat “had to be drawn to the issue by parties other than the national authority”.

In other words, Malta’s perm rep was informed of the bungling by people who were not Maltese and most likely caused him huge embarrassment.

In addition, the board concluded that there was lack of supervision by the ministry, in what is padded criticism of Education Minister Dolores Cristina. The board stopped short of mentioning the minister by name, and did not add anything further – but it is clear that the blame goes all the way to the top in this one. It is also manifestly clear that the problem was ‘ignored’ until it became far too big to hide (as happened with Greece) and the bubble burst.

While it is the permanent secretary who has to bear technocratic responsibility, surely, the minister has to take political responsibility – at least acknowledging that blind faith in one’s team is not the way to go about things. The report also says that there was no deliberate intention to be “irresponsible” – and therefore this case qualifies as crass incompetence.

We also hasten to point out that we do not believe that the minister had an active role in this issue – her mistake was to not supervise and chase up her people. As we have already said: Blind faith is not a virtue – especially when it is blind faith in human beings.

Malta has done well to steer clear of the international crises – but cases such as these are ones which bring us closer to the storm. Remedial action is needed before it is too late. At least, the reports were objective and did not make any attempt to hide what has been going on – more of the same is needed in many other sectors. When one reads such findings, it does raise doubts about other issues which are what can be described as hazy, at best.