We have been told that when Prime Minister Robert Abela was on holiday this summer, and on other occasions, he did not pass on his duties as Malta’s head of government to the second-in-command.

No notice was published in the Government Gazette to say that his deputy, Chris Fearne, took over responsibilities as Acting Prime Minister when Abela was away over the past weeks.

“The Prime Minister travelled on a private holiday to Greece and Sicily with his family in August,” MaltaToday reported, without being informed of any specific dates as to when this vacation was taken.

That no replacement is appointed, as was normally the practice when other prime ministers were in charge before Abela, has apparently been the norm since he took over.

The Sunday Times, quoting sources, said that over the past two years – not just this summer – “Abela travelled out of the country for weekend getaways on a number of occasions without appointing an acting prime minister”.

One Cabinet minister who spoke to The Sunday Times said that this summer’s “holiday seems to be lasting forever”.

There was no official reaction to the stories about the Prime Minister’s travels which were published by Malta Today and The Sunday Times last week. When the government ignores such articles, it normally means that there was nothing wrong in them. They hit the truth, or were close enough not to need any answer, in the hope that the stories would be quickly superseded by other news items.

Now, there’s nothing wrong that a prime minister goes on holiday. Like everyone else, he is entitled to a break, to spend some time with his loved ones and relax in whichever way he chooses.

What’s not acceptable is that the Prime Minister does not pass on his duties to his deputy, or to others as established by protocol, if the deputy PM is also away. To put you in the picture, the third most senior minister is Owen Bonnici, followed by Ian Borg and Michael Falzon.

“The Prime Minister never relinquished his duties,” MaltaToday was also told. But managing Malta by remote control is simply not the way to do it. In the days when Abela was away, it was like Malta’s ship was been steered by a captain on another boat.

Since the election, Abela’s public appearances have been rare, and have become more infrequent after Parliament rose for the summer recess in early July, earlier than it did in previous years. His interaction with the media has also been limited, and there have been very few occasions when we were invited to attend events where the PM was present.

Last Thursday, for example, the Department of Information issued a statement about a visit Abela made to the Valletta Cruise Port. No media call was issued for the occasion and we got to know about it after it all happened.

His interventions on the Labour Party media have also been sporadic and one seems to have been hastily concocted yesterday week (20 August) when newspapers started to ask questions about the PM’s holidays. Another so-called interview, on the friendly and PL-owned One station, was held on Friday.

Since the two stories were published last Sunday, there has also been an effort for the PM to be seen more.  We know that he visited former Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici in hospital, and spent some time among the residents of Naxxar and Marsascala, according to information posted on social media pages.

It is clear that the PM was doing his best to tell one and all that he had returned to the island. But there have been no official events involving him, in the presence of the media, for many weeks now.

We do not know the reasons why Abela chooses not to publicly announce that he is on vacation.

Maybe he does not like to tell us how many times he opts to leave the island. That phrase in The Sunday Times article – “abroad repeatedly this month” (in reference to August) – gives so much to think about. It would probably not look good that it is publicly announced, regularly, that the PM is away, on holiday. The frequency of such trips could therefore be a reason why there is no official declaration.

A second reason has a more serious connotation. Is the PM afraid to let go of the reins of the country? Is he so power-hungry that he is unable to temporarily give up his authority? Does he not have full confidence in Chris Fearne? Does Abela feel that he cannot trust his deputy?

Then again, all this could just be yet another chapter in Labour’s “u iva, mhux xorta” (anything goes) attitude, one which has seen cutting of corners, the non-following of simple rules which are there to keep things in order.

It could be that the PM just does not bother with behaving in the way that he should.