It sounded like a detective novel penned by the world famous English crime novelist Agatha Christie. When some of the new ministers entered their ministerial offices, a few days after the new government was elected to power in March 2013 with an overwhelming majority, they discovered to their surprise that some articles and computers had mysteriously gone missing. The news was splashed on the news media and pictures of offices with dangling computer cables were also published. The public was astounded – how can it be possible that such bulky articles of extreme national importance be so easily removed without detection from such highly sensitive and secure places?

When the police where contacted a few days later, they stated that no official report about this matter had been submitted to them so far! Eventually, when investigations started, several ex-ministers and the ex-prime minister were questioned. The response from some was that they were not aware these computers had gone missing. However, another ex-minister, with tongue in cheek, implied that as his ministry could not afford to purchase computers, these had been rented and were returned to suppliers (which ultimately means costing taxpayer more in the longer term). But in the latter case, it seems that nobody bothered to collect the data from the rented computer before they were given back to the suppliers.

The data on the hard discs of these computers could be considered as a source of historical information, as part of a nation’s heritage for future generations. Some of it might have shed some light on the dealing and wheeling of a disgraced administration, which the general electorate so convincingly condemned. Other data would have been considered as confidential data on private citizens, and should thus have been protected in accordance with data protection laws and regulations. The EU has lately stressed on data protection that our little country seems to blatantly ignore.

It is thus obvious that the theft of public property was mostly motivated to keep the skeletons in the cupboard hidden from public viewing, rather than for the intrinsic value of the computers themselves that have become cheaper over the years. The electronic records of these computers may have been possibly destroyed by now so that no future generations would know what had been taking place in the corridors of power during the GonziPN reprehensible administration. However, although more than nine months has passed since the new government was elected on an electoral manifesto emphasizing transparency and justice, it seems little to no action has been taken in catching the culprits. One would have thought that it would be an easy task for the police to catch these criminals who stole such important public property which had been closely monitored with CCTV cameras, and a 24-hour security watch in some cases. But as yet, nobody has been accused of these acts, no civil servant held accountable, no security chief has taken the blame for this security failure. Is it possible that the police may have been prevented from pursuing this task, perhaps on the basis of appeasing the Opposition, or concurrent with the idiomatic expression “let bygones be bygones” so that when in turn the current Opposition regains power, they would reciprocate the leniency (I scratch your back and you scratch mine).

Although initially it sounded like a crime novel by Agatha Christie, crimes at high levels in Maltese society have a habit of taking a different tack especially when it concerns exposing the wrong doings of the people’s representatives. Although most (if not all) of the crimes in the crime detection series of Agatha Christie end up being resolved, our local ones remain shrouded in mystery.

Raymond Sammut

Mellieha