Police investigations following the conclusion of the hospitals deal inquiry are ongoing, Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa said in an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday.

Responding to a question about the hospitals deal magisterial inquiry, regarding whether the police are looking into parts of it which indicate certain areas where further investigations could take place, the Commissioner said: “Definitely the police are investigating. We went, in depth, into the details of the magisterial inquiry and yes they are ongoing. There are further investigations where you could say there were details on which there was no conclusion about, and on which there was no order as to whether people should be charged in court. There were areas where it was explicitly indicated by the experts, and areas where there was no reference but we feel merit further investigations. Right now those investigations are ongoing.”

A number of high profile current and former politicians, top officials and others were charged following the conclusion of the hospitals deal inquiry. These include former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, his former Chief of Staff Keith Schembri, former Minister Konrad Mizzi, PL MP and former Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne, Central Bank Governor Edward Scicluna who is currently under suspension, among others.

The magisterial inquiry had been launched following a successful court application filed by rule of law group Repubblika in 2019. Separately, the courts had annulled the hospitals deal following a court case that had been filed by PN MP Adrian Delia. That judgement had mentioned fraud, and the annulment of the contract was confirmed on appeal.

During the interview, Gafa defended his actions with regards to the hospitals deal saga and was also asked about a number of other scandals.

Responding to criticism that the police are seen to be strong with the weak and weak with the strong, Gafa said: “I don't think as many people who have or had a top post in the country have ever been charged in court as there are now - politicians, banks etc. I think statements like that lack objectivity.” 

It was pointed out to the Commissioner that most are the result of a magisterial inquiry, and not a police investigation. “Doesn't that show a failure on the part of the police force?” he was asked.

“I recently testified about this in a Constitutional case and explained the way the police worked with the inquiring magistrate, and explained that every action the police took or didn't take was based on the direction of the inquiring magistrate. Eventually the magistrate’s conclusions were made which are based on a 1,200 page report, with clear orders on over 100 pages. The Attorney General, who is the prosecutor that leads criminal procedures, was content after discussions with the police, that on the basis of those clear orders by the inquiring magistrate the people mentioned be charged,” Gafa responded.

As for whether it was a dereliction of duty by his predecessors not to investigate prior to the launch of the magisterial inquiry, which was initiated due to a court application by an NGO, he said: “You are asking about something that happened before my time. I can tell you about how we work today.”

“Today I see to it that even where we need certain expertise, we find innovative methods to work. Right now we have a case, the second where the police force has issued an expression of interest for companies that have certain specialisations,” Gafa said. He said that the force has advanced a lot over the past years, particularly in the financial sector.  

However, he said that these types of crimes continuously evolve in drastic ways. "I, who worked for ten years in that department, barely understand Cryptocurrency, and so today we have people specialised in Blockchain who investigate those kinds of crimes.” The Commissioner mentioned that the financial crimes department is the biggest department. “But besides this specialiasation, there are some areas you would need to resort to experts.” He said the force would issue calls for private companies. “The difference from a magisterial inquiry is that we are working hand in hand with these companies, having visibility of what they are doing and above all learning from this experience. There is a skills transfer which, unfortunately, is very lacking in magisterial inquiries.”

“There are certain magisterial inquiries where experts appointed by the court would be in other countries. The Maltese police would not know what is going on and would have to wait for the final report of the inquiring magistrate that would be based on the reports of these experts. This doesn't only happen in financial crime cases... when it comes to cases of fatal traffic accidents, where you have a building collapse for example. The police doesn’t have the expertise to determine what the cause is of a building collapse. Until now, and I say this as we are working on the establishment of a roads policing section, we don't have the expertise to determine the cause of a fatal accident for instance. So in such instances, before the police or Attorney General proceeds to court, they would need the experts' report.”

'Those who are saying that the police did not conduct any investigation are wrong'

Asked whether he, as the Police Commissioner, finds it strange that his predecessors didn't launch an investigation into the hospitals deal, given there was enough for a magisterial inquiry to be launched, and whether there should be an investigation into why his predecessors did not investigate, Gafa said: “I was not an integral part of the police investigations at the time and do not have visibility of the basis of decisions taken at the time. It would be imprudent of me to provide a public opinion in this regard.”

The National Audit Office had issued three reports relating to the hospitals deal at different times. All were published following Gafa’s appointment as Commissioner. Questioned as to why he did not look into the case separately from the magisterial inquiry at the time, he said: “You are wrong, as from when I was appointed Police Commissioner until the publication of the magisterial inquiry, I personally, including with our investigators, had a number of meetings with the inquiring magistrate. We were discussing certain developments that were taking place, including the Auditor General's reports but not only, and we were asking the inquiring magistrate regarding the way forward.” There were instances where “the inquiring magistrate, on the basis of information that was published in the media, directed us to investigate independently. Those who are saying that the police did not conduct any investigation are wrong. We investigated cases that were offshoots of the magisterial inquiry, always on the direction of the inquiring magistrate,” Gafa said.

But the impression up to this point has been that the police were not investigating autonomously. Gafa himself had reportedly said in court without the experts’ reports, “which were not received by the magistrate for some time, the police could not investigate the hospitals deal, and so needed the direction of the magistrate.” 

Asked about this impression, he said that the police investigated autonomously after court decisions. “Even with regards to the allegation that we didn't see any of the boxes etc, in a Constitutional case I exhibited documents, applications and decrees by the inquiring magistrate, where we asked for direction as to what to do regarding allegations that were being mentioned in the news.” He said that there were times the police were given a response, others where they were not. “On the basis of the decrees given by the inquiring magistrate, where the magistrate said they were not the merit of the inquiry, the police investigated separately.”

Electrogas inquiry not received yet

Turning to another magisterial inquiry, that regarding Electrogas, the Commissioner said that “there were allegations at the end of the electoral campaign that there was an inquiry which closed and were making reference to this inquiry. We received questions at the time as to whether it was closed, and we said no. Until today we have received no report on it.”

The Commissioner was asked whether he agreed with the way the Presidential pardons offered prior to the elections in the benefits fraud scandal were handled, but he would not say.

“As police commissioner any opinion I give in this regard, I give in the respective fora. What I can say is that every time I was asked to give advice on presidential pardons, the advice I always gave was that any decision must be taken after we ensure that justice is done in its totality.”

Asked whether he believes such a wide-ranging offer sends the wrong message, he said it does not merit him giving a public opinion. Pressed on the matter, he said that it is not incumbent on the police to take the decision. “This is a decision that is proposed to the President by the Cabinet of Ministers and ultimately it is the President who determines whether to grant that pardon. You yourself are saying that it is a Presidential pardon and I say again, I give any opinion in the respective fora.” He would not answer as to whether he was consulted on it. “Any advice that is given on Presidential Pardons is of a confidential nature and I always treated them as such.”

One of the men accused in the social benefits racket, Roger Agius, has claimed to have quite a bit of information to give about the case. 

Gafa said that in an ongoing court case against the person mentioned the police asked the magistrate listening to the case so that, on the basis of the request he made, they can talk to him again. “The police cannot talk to anyone regarding ongoing proceedings in court without the direction of the magistrate. The Magistrate gave us that decree. We sent for the person you mentioned and in the coming sitting the police will be informing the magistrate with any information he passed on or didn't pass on.”

Driving licence scandal case closed

This newsroom also queried the Commissioner about the driving licence racket scandal. A number of Transport Malta officials have been charged in court, however the Times Of Malta had revealed messages other public officials were sending to the then Transport Malta director of licensing. One of those who sent messages was Minister Ian Borg, who had denied any wrongdoing.

“That is a case where the police charged a number of public officials from within Transport Malta and I believe also civilians (...) We looked at a number of messages, emails and during that investigation, which today is concluded, the police even interrogated two politicians. Following discussions with the Attorney General, it did not result that there is evidence for any of them to be charged in court.”

Told that the implication was that the messages were putting pressure on Transport Malta officials to make someone pass the test or not, the Commissioner said: “to proceed against someone in court you have to prove a case beyond reasonable doubt, not just think about what there could have been, but about what evidence there is to proceed against someone. Until today, the police, following discussions with the Attorney General, it was established that there isn't enough evidence for any of these politicians to be brought to court on a criminal charge.”

Gafa was recently appointed for his second term. This move was opposed by the Nationalist Party, and civil society. Asked whether he believes it was right to continue on when so many believe he shouldn’t, Gafa referred to his original appointment in 2020.

“I am the first police commissioner who was appointed after a public call, and so I passed through a transparent selection process led by the Public Service Commission. Before my appointment, the Opposition did not attend for my Parliamentary scrutiny, and so as they say, the morning shows the day. So I could have anticipated the attitude of the Opposition towards me over the past years. You made reference to civil society. I think we need to specify who the civil society you are referring to is, it is Repubblika, some of whose exponents while I was going through the selection process came out with the story that someone gave me a car. I had shown the news portal that published it that it was not true, but this shows that from the beginning there was antagonism against me.”

He went on to say that even when the Police Force "was praised by all newspapers for the way we operated, they issued a statement praising the operations of the force from the Deputy Commissioner downwards. I know I have good people as the force achieves its results not because the Police Commissioner works alone, but because he has a pool of good people. I am not expecting any congratulations from Repubblika or anyone, but even in an occasion like that, this group showed antagonism towards me.”

He went on to mention statistics, among other things. “Over the past years one report after another showed how much the police are trusted by the people. The National Statistics Office survey published last year showed how there were 90% of the people who have trust in the police force. 70% of these same people say that the police force is professional. The Eurobarometer last June compared us to three other entities - the courts, the media and politicians. It emerged that the police force is by far more trusted than these three entities.”

“Judge us on results. On safety and security, statistics show that despite the increase in population and diversity and the tourism records, not only did we reduce criminality... there were 31 crimes per 1,000 inhabitants last year. If we had to compare that to 2004, back then we had 46 crimes per 1,000 inhabitants. That means that last year we had one-third less crimes than we had 20 years ago. Last year we had around 4,700 theft reports, 20 years ago we had over 11,000 theft reports.”

But most criticism levelled against the police has been centred around lack of action on alleged corruption or cases involving top officials. “The hospitals investigation was a result of a magisterial inquiry. Was there an investigation into those at the top of the Panama Papers? Were there police investigations into major scandals in the past when it comes to politicians, as there are many questions about that?” he was asked.

"You’re asking me questions on matters that did not depend on me. You need to get the response from the preceding commissioners."

Pressed again whether he should launch an investigation into the lack of action taken in those cases, he said: “Today, and even in the Vitals inquiry, the police force worked hand-in-hand with the inquiring magistrate. You mentioned the Panama Papers, there is an ongoing inquiry. The police are also working hand-in-hand with the inquiring magistrate, and my hope is that we would have the conclusions so that we can work on them.”