The news that Minister Michael Falzon appointed a board of inquiry made up of “three friends” to investigate how millions of euros in public money was stone in a benefits fraud racket is an attempt by the government to show it is doing something when, in fact, it continues to hide and try to obscure the facts, NGO Repubblika said.

It was reacting to the appointment of a board of inquiry which is tasked to investigate the benefits system after it was revealed that hundreds of people received public money they were not eligible for.

Why did it take a newspaper report in September 2023 for the board to be set up by, by the ministry’s own admission, it had known that the fraud was taking place in September 2022? Why was it appointed now when Prime Minister Robert Abela said that the political decisions on the matter had been taken in December 2021?

Repubblika said it is not true that the government wants the facts to be known as the government would have tried to uncover them when it got to know that the fraud was taking place.

The government is afraid of the public’s response to the scandal.

The government should give an account of its actions. Minister Michael Falzon should have faced journalists to announce the appointment of the board of inquiry, not hide behind Facebook and the Department of Information.

Now he has appointed three friends to tell him that he had done nothing wrong and that only Silvio Grixti, a Labour MP who resigned in 2021, was behind the whole scandal and that, when caught, he had been given a promotion and made consultant to the PM, Repubblika said.