The reading of the National Audit Office report on the Michael Falzon – Gaffarena affair relating to the aptly named Old Mint Street house makes sorry reading.

The summary impact of the report led, as we now know, to the resignation of Dr Falzon, a resignation that was forced upon him seeing he has always refused to see anything wrong in what he did, not just in the past weeks but even yesterday after his resignation, in the presence of the prime minister himself.

To say, as he did, that the NAO report seems like a speech from the Opposition, shows Dr Falzon has not understood yet the import, the gravity, of what happened under his remit.

But on second thoughts, there is far more in the NAO report than just stigmatizing Dr Falzon’s handling of the situation. What happens, we may say, was a disaster just waiting to happen.

It seems clear that a member of the public, Mr Gaffarena, has been allowed the run of the Lands Department. He was in and out, found out what was going to happen before the people directly involved got to know.

He was allowed to choose what the government was to give him in return for his portion of the Old Mint Street house. He was allowed to pick and choose houses and sites. In short, he was allowed to make a packet out of government land and houses.

Dr Falzon’s fault is not just his involvement in this deal but, even before that, in allowing that kind of atmosphere at the department, where members of the public, Mr Gaffarena, and maybe others and others.

One must also remember the department falls within the prime minister’s own remit. In fact, one of the remedial steps now being taken is to turn the Lands Department into an authority. Whether that is the right step or not, or whether it can be done quickly without impeding the work of the department, the fact also remains that the disorder in the department is indeed the responsibility of Dr Falzon but also the responsibility of the prime minister himself.

The scandal, rather than just the resignation, is a huge blow to the Muscat administration. This is the first time a minister resigned after a report by the Audit Office.

Dr Falzon himself said yesterday that the NAO report reads like a speech by the Opposition. He is right, but is seeing the whole thing back to front. It is not the NAO report that reads like an Opposition speech, but rather what the Opposition has been saying is now fully confirmed by the Audit Office.

It was the Opposition which raised the issue and which kept the issue under fire and now it has been fully vindicated by an independent body. That is the full extent of the damage that has been done.