Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this evening said it would have been easy for him, in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal, to send someone in his stead to attend the conference on tackling corruption being held in London.

"I lead a government where one of my ministers was mentioned in the Panama Papers. I had to take tough political decisions. The opposition criticizes me for not being too harsh, but I think I was hard enough. The easy thing to do would be to send someone junior, but I'm here instead to face the music,” he told the audience.

Malta, although the smallest country in Europe, is "trying its best to see that the corruption problem is defeated," he said

Speaking during a conference called 'Tackling corruption together', in which leaders of civil society, business and government are taking part, the Prime Minister mentioned three particular measures which the PL Government has taken. These are the removal of time-barring for politicians to be prosecuted for corruption; the Whistleblowers Act to give more protection to the whistleblowers rather than the politicians; and the Party Financing Act which looks into how political parties are being financed.

Regarding time-barring, what used to happen is that politicians had 10 years in which they could be prosecuted for corruption. That has been removed and now any politician from any era can be prosecuted at any point if there is clear proof of corruption, he said. 

The Whistleblower Act was a way of "beefing up structures within the government" in order to further protect the Whistleblowers to ensure that people feel free to point fingers. This has led to people being prosecuted, according to Dr Muscat.

He also spoke about the Party Financing Act saying that Donations to Political Parties are "finally" being kept in check. 

The Prime Minister said that Malta is not perfect and there is still a long way to go, but that being said, the government is giving a strong signal to the general public that "we are trying to tackle the problem"

Dr Muscat said that he is "not too impressed with the attendance for tomorrow's summit." He added, "I would have expected that for all the media coverage and global uproar, there should be more people here."

When he was asked "Who in particular would you have liked to see here?", the Prime Minister joked that "the list is too long."

"I lead a government where one of my ministers was mentioned in the Panama Papers. I had to take tough political decisions. The opposition criticizes me for not being too harsh, but I think I was hard enough. The easy thing to do would be to send someone junior, but I'm here instead to face the music."

The difference between this summit and all the others, Dr Muscat said, is that people can genuinely understand what's happening tomorrow, in comparison to most other treaties. "These are bullet form points which are easily researched and we can be held in account."

His concluding remarks were that this is no longer a matter of throwing bureaucracy at systems. Dr Muscat said that throwing more bureaucracy around will only add to the risk of corruption.

Tomorrow, Prime Minister David Cameron will host the Anti-Corruption Summit to step up global action to expose, punish and drive out corruption in all walks of life. Today's conference is occurring before the summit.

The conference is organised by the Commonwealth, Transparency International, Thomson Reuters, the One Campaign, and the Bteam.

Transparency International said that many Transparency International chapters will attend to share their experiences of fighting corruption around the world to contribute to the decisions taken the next day. "This conference will send a strong message to world leaders: collaboration with civil society and business is key to limiting corruption". 

According to the UK Government website, "The summit will seek to galvanise a global response to tackle corruption. As well as agreeing on a package of actions to tackle corruption across the board. It will deal with issues including corporate secrecy, government transparency, the enforcement of international anti-corruption laws, and the strengthening of international institutions".

"It will be the first summit of its kind, bringing together world leaders, business and civil society to agree a package of practical steps to: expose corruption so there is nowhere to hide; punish the perpetrators and support those affected by corruption; drive out the culture of corruption wherever it exists".

Earlier in the day,  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".

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.