Hats off to Konrad Mizzi. He makes headlines once again and, once again, for the wrong reasons.
The list of stories involving the Minster for Energy and Health is endless. I am losing count. His wife earns 13,000 euros a month. He travels secretively to meet shady governments. He engages in business deals with characters who are even more shady than the governments he visits. He singlehandedly loses 14 million euros in an oil procurement deal which goes sour, and signs innumerable amount of MOUs and contracts which are hidden away from the eye of scrutiny.
The common factor in all these stories is that the Prime Minister seems to be aware of the goings-on. The deals involving Mizzi and Muscat involve enormous sums of money. The most scrupulous transparency about their public and private financial affairs is therefore essential to remove any reasonable shadow of a doubt.
What did we get instead? Unpublished public contracts and shadowy unpublicised meetings with shadier governments. And, now, on Wednesday, one of the local papers (Malta Today) carried a most unusual story.
On the eve of his confirmation as deputy leader of the PL, Konrad Mizzi, revealed that he has registered a trust in New Zealand to manage his family’s financial affairs.
Poor Konrad, he thought we would all think he is so honest and transparent and that telling us about the trust would make us trust him!
Within hours, Konrad Mizzi had to confirm that he also owns a company on the other side of the globe, in Panama. Now THAT is the real story. Setting up a trust implies that Mizzi must own or has been entrusted to handle and invest millions. The Panama company puts serious doubt on the legitimacy of the investment.
Panama is blacklisted by the EU and is renowned for shady deals, tax evasion and complete secrecy. It is therefore shocking that both Konrad Mizzi and Joseph Muscat pretend to act as though it is absolutely legitimate and perfectly normal for a cabinet minister to be involved in a company based in Panama, which is in turn being managed by a trust fund in New Zealand.
Normal? A European minister having a company registered in Panama? Nonsense. It is outrageous to argue otherwise.
While our country was trying to take in the horrific implications of this story, Parliament was summoned for the Wednesday session. The Speaker rambled away giving his long, never-ending ruling on the appointment of magistrates (indirectly linked, as a public issue, to his own daughter’s nomination as magistrate), which we all somehow guessed would rule against the Opposition and the Private Member’s Bill.
A few Labour MPs were present while others trickled into the chamber. They all had a heavy look. Most of them searched online for the latest news updates and blogs.
Suddenly Konrad Mizzi walked in briskly, grinning like a Cheshire cat with rosy cheeks. Nobody engaged with him at first until he found solace in Owen Bonnici, who smiled at him.
When the Prime Minister walked into the chamber he summoned Owen Bonnici to his side, while Anthony Agius Decelis was given a front row seat and Konrad Mizzi sat a few rows behind them, next to Chris Cardona.
When Simon Busuttil challenged the Prime Minister to inform Parliament about what Panama Man was up to, Konrad looked as though he was about to stand up and answer the Leader of the Opposition himself. But Muscat stopped the unpredictable minister and handled the situation himself.
None of the Labour MPs seemed too eager to support Konrad. Their shouting was addressed at Simon Busuttil to stop him from taking too much time. His words hurt them. Chris Cardona seemed particularly hot under the collar and, while on his way out, glared at all of us and hissed, “Imbarazz!” (rubbish). Yeah, right.