Justice Minister Owen Bonnici yesterday paid a visit to the new Law Enforcement System Agency to mark its first 100 days of operation.

What should have been a routine press conference turned into a bit of a farce. It all started off with a traditional sit down press conference with former police commissioner Ray Zammit – the agency’s head – present and participating.

Once the conference was over, journalists asked for question time from both the Minister and the LESA head. Despite assurances that Mr Zammit would be giving comments, he disappeared and all of a sudden, journalists were told that he had appointments.

To make matters worse, once confronted, the Justice Minister stopped short of giving Ray Zammit a vote of confidence. He was visibly uncomfortable when pressed for an answer as to whether he approved of MrZammit’s appointment or not. He resorted to legal-type speak in order to dodge giving a definitive answer.

What does this say about Mr Zammit’s capabilities, or for that matter, moral authority to be in charge of such an agency. If he cannot take questions from the press and be truly accountable in the myriad of scandals in which he is embroiled, then he is certainly not fit to take questions from the media ever again.

So what position does that put him in? A very uncomfortable one, would be the logical answer. But yet again, Mr Zammit sees it perfectly fit to be appointed head of Lesa following the Gzira shooting debacle and his leaving the Police Corps.

It has become a pattern of this government to just ignore scandals in the hope that they will one day die down, while at the same time trying to deflect attention away from the things that matter. Normally, that happens when they dig something up on the opposition, or when there is some mega event on.

Cafe Premier, the Michael Falzon issue, Gaffarena are to name but just a few of the scandals that broke and were just left unaddressed by the government. To make matters worse, the government later in the day issued a statement through DOI condemning the Nationalist Party for boycotting the visit. This should not be done through the DOI. It should be done by the Labour Party’s press office. But then again, it is becoming abundantly clear that the lines between the official government and the Labour Party and getting more blurred by the minute.

We were promised transparency and accountability by Joseph Muscat and his Labour Party. But that never materialised, nor is it likely to.  People in authority need to be able to face the press. If they cannot, for whatever reason, then they have no business being in post they are in. This is why people resign and this is why people do not accept posts when they are involved in deal upon deal.