There can be absolutely no qualms about it, the OLAF report into the alleged misdoings of Malta’s now former European Commissioner John Dalli must be released as soon as possible.

Not only has the country been shamed and its reputation tarnished on a European and even a global scale, for there are few corners of the world the story has not reached, but the accusations levelled against Mr Dalli appear, from the scant information released to date, far too vague for anyone to form a properly informed opinion on the matter.

This is not solely an issue for the government that nominated him as Commissioner, this has become a national issue. If Mr Dalli is guilty as charged, there is a price that must be paid for such transgressions. But if he is innocent at the end of the day, there is quite another price to be paid.

It is understood that once OLAF’s report is scrutinised by the Office of the Attorney General, it will either recommend or not recommend that the police corps investigates the matter. That report reached the Attorney General’s office yesterday and, rightly so, it has refused to comment on its contents in the interests of justice and a pending investigation.

There is a framework agreement between OLAF and the competent authorities in EU states on the procedure to adopt when dealing with investigations launched by its officials. When OLAF deems its investigations should be handed over to national authorities for further evaluation, it sends the relevant reports to the competent authorities in the member state concerned.

In Malta’s case, this report is delivered to the Attorney General’s Office, which will set about carrying out an evaluation of its conclusions in line with Maltese law.

That report, for very obvious reasons cannot be released at this stage. But to let it languish for too long on someone’s desk would be absurd. It is not that the public’s morbid curiosity needs to be satisfied. It is that given the fact that Malta’s good name is being dragged through the dirt, the Maltese have a sacrosanct right to know what their Commissioner, and in a way the country itself, is being accused of.

And the man at the centre of the storm, John Dalli, has also called for the report to be made public as soon as possible.

OLAF has found “unambiguous circumstantial evidence” that former EU Commissioner John Dalli was aware that approaches were being made to influence the new tobacco directive and it says that at no point did he try to disassociate himself from or alert the commission of what was taking place.

But it is vague in that it strangely does not pinpoint any wrongdoing on the part of Mr Dalli. There are a lot of questions being asked in Malta and in Europe over the whole affair.

There are far too many questions being asked about the affair for the accusations to be kept under wraps for too long. There are simply too many questions being asked, in Malta and in the rest of Europe. These two press corps, however, appear to be seeing things rather differently. Whereas the European press by and large has been left scratching its collective head over why a Commissioner was made to resign over what appear to be run of the mill lobbying activities, at least before the €60 million bribe offer was revealed on Friday, which puts things in a somewhat different context, but the Maltese press has been very quick to condemn Mr Dalli.

Either approach may be proved right at the end of the day but the fact of the matter is that the end of the day has not yet been reached and there is still a while lot more to be learned of the sordid affair.

And while the President of the European Commission, one of the few people to have seen the full report, has evidently found enough incriminating evidence to request Mr Dalli’s resignation on the spot, that is simply not enough information to base an informed decision upon.

What is needed is for all the facts to be in hand before leaping to any conclusions. Anything short of that is simply selling ourselves short.