The actions by the authorities over the past weeks has spoken volumes as to the credibility of the police and the Attorney General, or rather in this case, lack of.

The criticism of the authorities taking action against the small fish, but not against the big fish, is clear and there for all to see. The criticism is justified.

Firstly, the big fish in the social security benefits fraud scandal, as far as this newsroom is aware, have not been arraigned. So far, all we have seen are those who took the benefits when not entitled to them facing justice, and don’t get us wrong, they must be arraigned and if found guilty be made to pay for their crimes. But where are the arraignments of those who had orchestrated and operated the scheme? What about those in government institutions who had recommended to people that they visit those who operated the scheme, were they even investigated? What about the vote buying allegations?

The lack of action speaks volumes. The people deserve answers. There must be justice.

Then another scandal broke, regarding the latest revelations in the driving test racket. The Prime Minister, quite disgustingly, has tried to play things down as though nothing is wrong and that they are ‘helping’ people ‘legitimately’. He’s saying those found to have committed alleged irregularities have been charged, and that the court case will take its course. Yes some people have been charged, but what about the government officials who piled on the pressure to those officials charged?

What action has been taken against those who sent the messages? The answer, it seems, is none. Not only that, but Prime Minister Robert Abela came out guns blazing to the defence of those in government departments who sent the messages! This is surreal. This is not normal.

Here are a couple of examples of the messages. The Times of Malta reports that an OPM customer care official and Labour activist said in a message: “This is my daughter’s partner’s cousin and I want to win his vote. His mother is with us.” Mansueto responded: “Viva il Labour dejjem!” Another chat the Times highlighted regards Minister Ian Borg. In instances “…Borg would simply give Mansueto the name and test details of a candidate, without any further preamble. ‘On Tuesday [name redacted] Muscat @12pm test date. Good afternoon,’ the minister said in one May 2019 message, to which Mansueto replied a minute later: ‘In my hands’.”

The very fact that the government officials were piling on pressure to ‘help’ candidates, or to have test dates moved up, is bad governance at the least. At the very least political responsibility should be upheld and those who piled on the pressure fired. But of course that won’t happen, as the situation seems to have been institutionalised.

The Prime Minister’s argument that everything happened within the parameters of the law because some of those referred did not pass the test does not mean a thing. Some may have, for instance, been just so very bad that it was beyond possible to justify passing them. That does not mean that in other instances pressure was not succumbed to. Are we expected to believe that government staff forwarding names, dates and times of driving tests to the person in charge isn’t putting pressure for, or ordering, a positive outcome? Come on.

The law applies to everyone, and the authorities are doing a disservice to the people by not taking action against the big fish on major scandals. The Police Commissioner and Attorney General haven’t even called a press conference to given a reason as to why they have decided not to take action when this is a national issue. Perhaps they are still investigating? Well if that’s the case, one must say that the Commissioner and the AG are responsible for enforcing the law and have to get their act together and move without delay against the orchestrators of these schemes. If they fail to take action against any wrongdoing, they need to go.