Prime Minister Joseph Muscat will address an anti-corruption Commonwealth conference this afternoon called “Tackling Corruption together”, set to take place just before an anti-corruption summit.
Leading British newspaper the Guardian today jibed that: “ Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat, is giving a keynote address – although one of his ministers, Konrad Mizzi, featured in the Panama Papers”.
According to the Guardian, “UK officials said the summit will issue a communique, a declaration and each attending country would publish its own action plan – a device for each country to make pledges that go further than the declaration. The UK action plan will contain commitments on the disclosure of companies that purchase property in the UK”.
A diverse group of leaders are attending the summit, including Jose' Ugaz, head of Transparency International, and Nigeria's President, Muhammadu Buhari. The latter two are committed to fighting corruption. Mr Buhari was publicly offended by UK Prime Minister Cameron’s remarks made in confidence with the Queen about Nigeria’s corruption and has appealed to Cameron to clamp down on London’s providing refuge for Nigerian money siphoned off the national economy.
The Guardian goes on to note that Konrad Mizzi, “set up a secret offshore trust in New Zealand, receiving help from Keith Schembri, Muscat’s chief of staff. Schembri, a former bank clerk, helped set up the trust and filled in much of the paperwork. His Maltese diplomatic passport appears in the Panama Papers. Mossack Fonseca identified him as a Pep, a politically exposed person”.
(Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil tweeted a link to the TMI report this afternoon.)
“The revelations have caused a major political row in Malta. Last week, Mizzi narrowly survived a motion of no confidence in the country’s parliament. He was the only serving EU minister to be found owning an opaque offshore trust,” says the Guardian.
The Panama Papers revelations have resulted in calls for both the removal of Mizzi and Schembri with national protests organised by the PN Opposition and Civil Society and a motion of no-confidence against the minister which was defeated in Parliament. While the Prime Minister has not taken any action against Schembri, the health and energy portfolio’s were removed from Minister Mizzi, who has been designated as a minister working on special projects under the wing of the Prime Minister, who in turn retained energy in his portfolio. Mizzi was made to resigned from the post of PL Deputy Leader, three weeks after he was elected.
The news analysis made by the Guardian mocks Malta’s weak position faced by alleged corruption at the government’s helm.