In 2021, the Dutch government resigned en bloc – the Prime Minister and his Cabinet of ministers – to take political responsibility for a scandal involving investigations into child welfare payments that had wrongly labelled thousands of parents as fraudsters.

An Associated Press report at the time had quoted then Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as saying that “we are of one mind that if the whole system has failed, we must take responsibility and that has led to the conclusion that I have just offered the king, the resignation of the whole Cabinet”.

The resignation followed a parliamentary report that found that tax office policies violated fundamental principles of the rule of law, also criticising the Dutch government for the way it had provided information to Parliament about the issue. Many wrongfully accused parents had been plunged into debt when tax officials demanded repayment of benefits the parents had been given.

By quitting as a whole, the Dutch government was acknowledging its mistakes and collectively taking political responsibility for the distress it had caused. One sitting minister who was linked to the scandal was man enough not only to resign, but also refused to be part of the caretaker government that led The Netherlands until the election was held.

Four weeks ago, a social benefits scandal erupted in Malta, when it was revealed that some 800 people were receiving social benefits they were not entitled to. The shameful exercise was compounded by the fact that these payments were being handed out in exchange of votes.

Nobody resigned in Malta. Nobody felt the need to take political responsibility for what had taken place. Accountability is not a word that is found in the Labour government’s dictionary.

The circumstances between the two episodes, of course, are different. But while on the one hand we had a government – the Dutch administration – taking political responsibility for the scandal, in Malta it was business as usual for the Robert Abela government. Things moved on as if nothing had happened.

Scrambling to defend itself, the Labour government and the Labour Party, with Abela at the forefront, weakly claimed that action had been taken when a Labour MP, Silvio Grixti, had resigned two years ago. Grixti had quit in 2021 after he had been interrogated by the police. At the time, few knew the reason why. Now we know much more.

In yet another attempt to be seen to be doing something, the government appointed a board to look into how severe disability benefits are handed out. In a way, it was an indirect admission that the system was being abused. But this is just a smokescreen. We all know what happens when the Labour government takes this direction – reports are compiled, recommendations made, but nothing changes. They are futile exercises, which cost taxpayer money, and which end up gathering dust on a shelf.

A few days ago, top Labour officials – deputy leader Daniel Micallef and president Ramona Attard – shamefully walked out of a press conference when questioned about Grixti’s status in the PL.

Beneficiaries have started to be arraigned. Some have admitted to the offence, and got away with a suspended sentence while being ordered to return the money. Some recipients have informed investigators that they were being told about the racket by people who were close to ministers and customer care officials.

But so far no-one from the top brass has been charged. It is only the small fry that have ended up before a magistrate. The people who were running the scheme remain untouched and we do not even know if they are being investigated. If we had to ask the police what they are doing, we would get the standard reply that they do not give information about their investigations.

One wonders what is taking so long. Will we have another situation in which people are acquitted because their case is time-barred? It would not be the first time this happened. We saw one example just this week, when a driver of a car which hit a jogger, seriously injuring him, was let off because the statute of limitations had passed.

Both Abela and Minister Michael Falzon, who is politically responsible for the sector, have tried to downplay the scandal, saying that the political price was paid by Grixti.

What has happened goes beyond that. From what has emerged so far it is evident that it was an orchestrated scheme. Reports speak of up to 800 persons who were illicitly benefiting from public money. Abela has admitted to about 160 of them, but the number is set to grow. Given that some of the beneficiaries have said that they were receiving the funds in exchange of their vote amounts to electoral fraud too.

But no one from Labour thinks of following the Dutch example.