The news of the reappointment of Joseph Cuschieri to head a government agency and, more so, the Prime Minister’s comments that he may reconsider Rosianne Cutajar’s position as an exile of the Labour Party only goes to confirm that the standards of good governance are in free fall.

Both of these news points emerged on Wednesday, with Cuschieri first being announced as the successor for Steve Ellul to lead Project Green. 

Cuschieri previously served as the CEO of the Malta Financial Services Authority, but he resigned in 2020 after it was revealed that he had gone abroad with Yorgen Fenech to Las Vegas to offer him advice on regulatory matters relating to a casino in a trip that the now alleged Daphne Caruana Galizia murder mastermind had paid for himself.

Fenech hadn’t been charged with any involvement in the Caruana Galizia murder at the time of the trip, but Cuschieri was still found to have breached the MFSA’s code of ethics on the basis that “it is not appropriate to accept any exclusive or expensive hospitality invitations.”

Cuschieri had expressed reservations at the conclusions, but had resigned regardless.  Within the context of the reasons for his resignation – and Robert Abela’s multiple statements in the past that his leadership was fostering higher standards in public life with its decisions – eyebrows were raised when he was announced to succeed Ellul at Project Green.

But eyebrows were raised even further when Abela, after being asked how he could justify Cuschieri’s appointment, said that enough time had passed since the aforementioned ethics breach had happened for him to be considered again and that – as a matter of fact – the same line of thinking could be applied to Rosianne Cutajar.

Lest we forget: Rosianne Cutajar was first moved out of Cabinet in 2020 after it emerged that she had benefitted from a property deal involving Yorgen Fenech, and then forced to resign from the Labour parliamentary group last April after author Mark Camilleri leaked chats showing the exceedingly close relationship between her and Fenech.

It is important to contextualise that Cutajar had also been accused of misleading the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to lambast rule of law criticism that included a reference to 17 Black, a secretive Dubai-registered company owned by Fenech which has been connected to a number of corruption scandals.

She has since continued to serve as an independent MP, although she can frequently be seen sitting on the government side of the House and conversing with Labour MPs during Parliamentary sittings, and Abela himself had said that Cutajar would not contest for the Labour Party again.

“I am totally excluding a (Cutajar) candidature in the Labour Party's name,” Abela told media gathered outside party headquarters the day that her resignation was announced.

Since then, the National Audit Office also concluded that an ITS consultancy job that she had – and told Fenech about – was “fraudulent” and “irregular.”

But Abela’s tack clearly seems to have changed.

“Nobody should pay a never-ending penalty, unless the circumstances of wrongdoing are extreme. And she [Cutajar] paid twice,” he told the Times of Malta. “It would be cruel not to reconsider her position, especially considering she paid an ultra-high price for what she did,” he added.

The desired high standards of governance that he once spoke about have gone out the window.

One wonders what is to come next:  will Cutajar be a candidate for the Labour Party in the upcoming MEP elections?  Will she be welcomed back into the parliamentary group?  Will she be given a person of trust position at a government entity?  Nothing appears to be off the table.

Likewise one wonders what this means for future government actions and appointments.  Abela had, thus far, largely shorn away and closed the door on those who had to resign their posts owing to various scandals and indiscretions.

But what now?  At this rate, can we expect others to return?  Will we see Justyne Caruana involved in the fold again?  Or – to exaggerate even further – maybe even the return of Chris Cardona and Konrad Mizzi?

Even by admitting that he was considering bringing Cutajar back to the fold – despite all of her serious transgressions – Abela has negated any talk of wanting high standards from his MPs.

One only hopes that he sees some sense, and doesn’t go through with bringing Cutajar back into the fold. To quote Abela himself last April: “Whoever doesn't live up to standards must face the consequences.” 

In a case like this, the consequences cannot and should not be done away with after a few months.