Just to counter any misinformation likely to be disseminated by my enemies, let me say that I am an old (not elderly) man, not in public life, and not under any stress from unfulfilled dreams of office under any political dispensation. However, I still command enough wit and information to be able to work out that if these islands do indeed have “whining, ill-bred individuals of a world-revolves-around-my-navel disposition”, the first on that list would be Daphne Caruana Galizia (DCG). Over the years, she has morphed from posing as a young victim of police ‘thumbscrews’, to social commentator, to self-appointed arbiter of good manners, as ghostwriter to weepy, middle-aged, well-bred politicians, to expert household discus thrower. In short, she is the perfect person to be asking herself (not readers of The Malta Independent on Sunday), “Isn’t anyone giving courses in ‘Teach Yourself Dignity?’”

Having just crawled out from under that boulder dropped on her by that ungrateful, and by now ill-bred politician Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando (JPO), she has fastened her fangs on Perit Joseph Falzon. As usual, despite much pretence to the contrary, accuracy is not really her strong point. Falzon, and any member of the public who has any interest in these matters, knew that under the Mepa reform bill, the office of auditor would be within the Ombudsman’s remit, changing its name to Commissioner for the Environment. In fact, the long-drawn out argument about re-instatement of Falzon’s assistant Carmel Caccopardo had led to the Ombudsman taking the Mepa audit office under his wing. This did not save Falzon from sniping by Dr Gonzi, the Mepa chairman and lately even by the “polite” Dr Mario de Marco.

Falzon complained about the ‘indecently’ short notice of final termination; given that he was not anybody’s office boy (and even for office boys past their probation there is a longer notice!), that is hardly evidence of an inflated sense of self-importance as DCG tries so hard to make out. The Ombudsman’s contention that the legal process did not permit a good advance notice to be given is weak and made weaker by his reported opening gambit: “I don’t know if they told you…” Once “they” – the Prime Minister and/or Leader of the Opposition – had started their ‘consultation’ (catfight, more probably), Falzon could have been informed that his end was nigh. Non-agreement between the two “cats”, the most probable outcome, would have left the Ombudsman with 15 days to make an appointment himself. Something like a month’s notice was certainly possible.

But the short notice was also administratively inept and could have a direct negative impact on the citizen. Despite DCG’s desperate scraping of very thin butter, the auditor’s work was unlike that of a typical senior civil servant. Handing over to a successor, particularly in the absence of any supporting staff, can mean that near-finished audits have to be started afresh, stretching waiting periods intolerably.

The notion of “confidentiality” certainly has its place in civilized society, but so has the realisation that it is liable to abuse: hence the various forms of “Whistleblower Act”, not one of which is as yet on our statute books. It is a little overblown for the Ombudsman to express “astonishment” at Falzon’s behaviour, as well as more than slightly pompous to cloak a straightforward dismissal in “confidentiality”. We can just as well claim shock at the maladroit way the Ombudsman handled the matter. Having regaled us with a mish-mash of her norms on how Falzon should have behaved, DCG then calls Joseph Falzon “a control freak”, the very antithesis of his character, and in doing so shows quite clearly that she used the term out of mere spite. Her friend, the recently (and unfairly) dismissed super control freak Richard Cachia Caruana (RCC), did make a fair amount of noise in newspaper interviews, without being admonished by her. And he was given, at least formally, 15 days to clear his desk, admittedly likely to be more heavily laden than that of a simple Mepa auditor. But RCC’s successor is another ‘control freak’ who has worked as RCC’s assistant. Falzon’s successor should be a person of equal integrity and independence of mind: much more difficult to find in these islands than ‘control freaks’.

Incidentally, can DCG please comment on the PSC report of irregularities in government appointments, not those connected with medical consultants, but those connected with Mepa: Director of the Environment Division and CEO. The first appointment was “audited” at my request by Joseph Falzon. In a report published some months ago, Falzon concluded that the appointment – made without a call for applications – went against existing rules, an opinion now also broadcast by the PSC – an independent watchdog with constitutional standing.

E.A. Mallia

ATTARD