Tuesday saw five police officers charged in relation to the traffic branch allowances scandal. It is good to see that progress has begun to be made in this situation, and that people have started to be taken before the courts.

A particularly worrying situation that emerged in the court session, was that only 7 out of 27 datatrackers installed on police motorcycles were functioning. How had this not raised eyebrows, and why wasn’t this situation fixed earlier?

But the police have a long way to go and arraignments and the issuing of charges to officers allegedly involved in overtime abuse should only be the beginning. Trust in the police has suffered over recent years, and this scandal did not help in the slightest. A complete investigation into the whole Force should, if it has not already taken place, be launched to see if any other sections of the Force were involved in any wrongdoing.

By wrongdoing, one does not only mean in relation to potential overtime abuse, but also not investigating where an investigation should have taken place for example and the reason for it.

The new Police Commissioner has a long road ahead. He will not have the luxury of having a grace period and will get one chance in the eyes of the public. This is due to the past few Police Commissioners’ handling of the Force, and the filing down of any possible goodwill.

The police need to pull up their socks. It was refreshing to hear the new Police Commissioner say that he will not look at faces, and one hopes that this is the case.

At the same time, Malta has a major test on the horizon, one which, if failed, could see Malta placed on the Financial Action Task Force grey-list, which would cause many problems for the country. The police have been heavily criticised for not doing enough in terms of prosecuting financial crime. What is of great concern, is that the final test is in October, which doesn’t leave much time for the new Commissioner to change this situation, even if he hits the ground running.

Perhaps leaving a change in Commissioner till so late in the day was a mistake, and perhaps the change should have come sooner.

The change in the leadership of the Economic Crimes Unit was a good first move by the Commissioner however, as it shows that he wants to try for change.

There is of course one more thing that would help out Malta’s reputational situation, and it involves politicians. It would be great if politicians could refrain from entering into any shady deals, or opening companies in shady jurisdictions. It would be great if politicians could think of their country first, or get out of the job if they can’t. It would be great if politicians do their due diligence before taking the country into an agreement with another country or company which has a questionable past or questionable aims and ambitions. Wouldn’t that be a good way forward?