The Prime Minister should stop insulting our intelligence and tackle the FIAU reports issue head-on, instead of beating around the bush, changing subject and shifting the blame. 

Joseph Muscat had already insulted the country when he did not sack Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri a year ago, when the Panama Papers revealed how his two closest aides had set up secret companies in Panama, with the help of Nexia BT, just days after the general election. 

His defence of Schembri, in particular, continued even amid the latest bombshell revelations. The Opposition Leader has made some very serious claims and went to the court with evidence that Schembri took kickbacks from Brian Tonna, with the money coming from the citizenship-for-sale-scheme.

The other report, quoted by the Times, shows that the FIAU had found reasonable suspicion that Schembri had laundered money received from passport sale kickbacks.

When door stepped by journalists yesterday, Joseph Muscat did everything he could to shirk any form of responsibility, claiming that he had not seen the report, and even telling the members of the press that the report had been handed to them illegally. He then changed the subject completely and tried to shift attention on the Beppe Fenech Adami inquiry. 

The truth is the PM cannot keep running anymore. His back is now squarely against the wall and the hounds are closing in. Last week he did not rule out keeping Schembri by his side for another term. His position has to change, now more than ever. The longer the Prime Minister keeps defending Schembri the more he will give the impression that his Chief of Staff is the real Prime Minister, and that Schembri holds him by the scruff of the neck.

The revelations in the Sunday newspapers also put more pressure on Attorney General Peter Grech. Essentially, the AG, who also happens to be the chairman of the FIAU, had two damning reports in front of him, yet failed to take action, as did the MFSA, and the police. Dr Grech has defended himself by saying that he had no power to prosecute or launch investigations. 

We believe that at this juncture the AG’s position is no longer tenable. If the AG’s office is so toothless that it cannot tell the police to prosecute this huge scandal, on which there is evidence uncovered by the very same investigative body he heads, than the honourable thing would be to step down. 

The same goes for the police commissioner, Lawrence Cutajar, who incredibly still holds his post (given to him by Joseph Muscat’s government) despite the revelation that he has been sitting on these explosive reports for a whole year. The police commissioner should have been sacked a long time ago but Joseph Muscat has failed to do so, just as he failed to act in Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri’s case. 

The least the Commissioner could do, now that it has been proven that he is an incompetent leader of a force that has lost all sense of credibility is to step down and to make way for someone who is more inclined to investigate serious cases of alleged corruption when they are delivered to his (or her) desk. If he does not step down, and he probably won’t, we believe that nothing should stop any officer or group of officers within the police force to take action and bring Mr. Schembri to face justice based on the evidence published so far.  No one can stop them from performing their duty.