Robert Abela keeps scraping the bottom of the barrel. He's now thought up a new line of defence in the face of fierce public rage. His obstinate refusal to take action against the two ministers who abusively funnelled tens of thousands of euro into Amanda Muscat's pocket rankles with the majority. So he's come up with a new excuse - well yes we did rob the people but so did the others, and they stole more than we did.
Abela's deep cynicism is disturbing. "What I see in all this is the hypocrisy of the Nationalist Party", he told the Times of Malta. The Standards Commissioner, who Abela himself appointed, concluded that Abela's ministers breached the code of ethics. But all Abela sees "in all of this" is the Opposition's hypocrisy.
Repeatedly Abela tried to deflect attention onto the Opposition. Abela claimed that PN MP Toni Bezzina failed to turn up for his government employment for years. "He only attends to collect his fuel voucher, which he uses to fill his car with public funds," Abela insisted. The Prime Minister revealed Bezzina's annual salary - 51,000 euro - and claimed that "he fails to attend his workplace and provides no service".
Abela claims to know about Bezzina's alleged abuse. He's known about it for quite a while because he's mentioned it before. And yet he failed to take any action against Bezzina. What does that tell us about Robert Abela?
Firstly that he's incompetent and irresponsible. That despite knowing about Bezzina's abuse he failed to protect the nation. Abela knew about Bezzina's alleged daylight robbery - and did nothing. It tells us that Abela's government is so shambolic and ineffective that government employees simply fail to turn up for work for years, collect their fuel voucher, do no work at all and still get paid out of our taxes.
If Abela's claims about Bezzina were true, the only conclusion we'd draw is that Abela's totally unfit for office. He's unable to administer our money responsibly. He lets cheats and slackers draw their salary, despite doing nothing for years. No disciplinary action was taken against Bezzina, nobody intervened to stop his alleged abuse - for at least a decade. "For someone who's been working much longer than 10 years that adds up to half a million euros...", Abela commented.
Abela has now been in power for 4 years. That makes him responsible for the alleged theft of 204,000 euros by Bezzina.
If we assume Abela's cynical claims about Bezzina were true, the obvious question is why didn't Abela act? The answer is obvious - Abela wants to exploit his case as a cudgel with which to beat the Opposition. He wants to hold it up as evidence of the Opposition's "hypocrisy".
If Toni Bezzina is guilty of the rampant abuse Abela accuses him of, then Abela is guilty of dereliction of duty. Abela is guilty of shameless cynicism, of allowing our money to be squandered for his political mileage. He's using those stolen hundreds of thousands of taxpayer euro to boost his political agenda.
Abela should not be in any position of power. He's morally hollow and dangerous. He reached the nadir of moral relativism by arguing that Bezzina stole half a million while Amanda only 16,000 euro. That was a lie. Times of Malta fact-checked Abela and found he was lying.
Abela also accused David Agius of not reporting to work for years. He claimed that the Permanent Secretary raised questions about Agius' alleged abuse and that Agius "now attends as he sees fit, in a reduced capacity".
If that information is correct, why does Abela have access to personal data and information about government employees? Who provided the Prime Minister with this information? On what grounds was personal information about the two PN MPs passed on to the Prime Minister for him to use as a weapon against them and their party?
We all know what Abela does. He's done it before when he contacted the Tax Commissioner to discuss Bernard Grech's taxes. That's sheer abuse of power. Assuming Abela's claims about the two PN MPs are true, Abela abused his position to gain inside information about his adversaries which he makes public to discredit them and their party, and to defend his immoral and indefensible inaction against his ministers' flagrant abuse.
That's not only extremely worrying, it's deeply shocking. Abela should not have access to personal data of government employees, especially of his adversaries. What's even worse is that Abela's so brazen that he doesn't leak the information through third persons - he spills it out himself on the Times of Malta interview.
Robert Abela cannot distinguish between his role as Prime-minister and Party Leader. His privileged access to information as Prime Minister is intended for legitimate purposes. Personal information should only be released to those who absolutely need to know it for the implementation of their duties. There is no legitimate reason why Abela should know about Toni Bezzina's or David Agius' work in the public sector.
Both MPs should be subject to the same disciplinary procedures as anybody else if they broke the rules. The civil service should act against any civil servant irrespective of who she or he is and all should be treated fairly and equally. Any action against public sector workers should proceed according to the Public Service Management Code. Nowhere does that code state that the Prime Minister should be informed if the offender is a PN MP. Nowhere does it state that if a PN MP errs no action should be taken against them so that the Prime-minister can exploit their wrongdoing.
This is what Labour offers. A compromised, tainted party dripping in sleaze, whose leader condones and justifies abuse. His new mantra is yes we're entirely corrupt but so are the others. By coercing his MPs to back him in shielding Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri, he's setting a loyalty test. Overlook their ethics breaches, their dishonest cheating and lying, their blatant attempt to hoodwink the public, Abela orders. Do as I say, do as I do - condone misconduct, reward abuse of public office. Cheat the workers of their money and smear the Opposition.