Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia insisted that former Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit’s resignation was not related to claims that he refused to collaborate with EU anti-fraud agency OLAF over a fresh investigation concerning former EU Commissioner John Dalli, despite the timing of events.

Mr Zammit’s resignation on Thursday came shortly after the publication of a letter by OLAF head Giovanni Kessler, in which he accused the former commissioner of failing to reply to the agency’s request for assistance and repeated reminders. In his letter to Speaker Anglu Farrugia, Dr Kessler also said that someone claiming to speak on behalf of Mr Dalli told him that he could be arrested if he set foot in Malta.

 Former Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit

Deputy Police Commissioner Ray Zammit was appointed acting commissioner in his stead. No press conference was held, but Dr Mallia scheduled a ministerial declaration for this evening.

But in his prepared declaration, Dr Mallia made few references to the former commissioner, primarily to thank him for the services rendered and to congratulate him for his new role as security coordinator for national events. He failed to explain why Mr Zammit had to vacate the post in the first place.

Deputy Police Commissioner Ray Zammit

Dr Mallia also did not conclusively explain why Ray Zammit was only appointed to be an acting commissioner.

Instead, the minister focused on what he described as an ongoing restructuring at the police corps, stating that this sought to address years of neglect under the previous government.

Dr Mallia revealed that the government was planning to appoint a chief executive, who would be answerable to the police commissioner in a bid to overhaul the Police Force’s administrative and financial structures.

He also said that the government intended to initially appoint commissioners for three-year terms, to ensure that they prove themselves before their appointment is confirmed.

The minister did make another reference to the departing commissioner at the end of his prepared statement, expressing his hope that the new commissioner would not find an opposition intent on undermining him – as, he argued it was doing during Peter-Paul Zammit’s term in office.

In his own reaction, Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil said that while he welcomed the minister’s presentation of his roadmap for reform in the police force, he said that he was also expecting the minister to answer two basic questions: why the former commissioner had to resign in the first place, and why his replacement was only appointed in an acting capacity.

He pledged to support the new commissioner, but pointed out that the opposition had a duty to speak out if mistakes were carried out, and also insisted that the former commissioner had overseen several incidents which, he said, undermined the people’s trust in the police force.

Highlighting the timing of Peter-Paul Zammit’s resignation, he asked the minister to state whether he was aware of the former commissioner’s failure to cooperate with OLAF, whether he was aware that EU law obliged member states to cooperate with the agency, and whether he would assume political responsibility for the incident.

“Was (Peter-Paul Zammit) acting on his own regard or on your instructions,” Dr Busuttil asked.

The opposition’s home affairs spokesman Jason Azzopardi and former minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici also asked Dr Mallia questions, only for the minister to state that the former was simply “parroting” his party’s leader and that the latter was in no position to make the statements he made in light of his own record: he had to step down after losing a vote of confidence in 2012.

But ultimately, Dr Mallia did delve into the former commissioner’s resignation in more detail: he said that this simply reflected Mr Zammit’s desire to occupy a more civilian role, and that it had nothing to do with the contents of Dr Kessler’s letter.

Giovanni Kessler

He insisted that he only found out that Mr Zammit had not answered OLAF’s request for collaboration through Dr Kessler’s letter, but refused to confirm that the police would now cooperate with the agency, stating that the police force was an independent entity.

Curiously, on a number of occasions, Dr Mallia erroneously referred to the former commissioner as “Pietru-Pawl Busuttil,” the name of the former Safi mayor who had been the victim of a police frame-up under a Labour Party government when he was accused of the 1986 murder of PN activist Raymond Caruana.

Mr Busuttil was eventually cleared of all charges: the murder remains unsolved.