We don't get to hear much about Michael Farrugia these days.

The veteran Labour MP served as minister in various portfolios under Alfred Sant, Joseph Muscat and Robert Abela, covering a wide spectrum of responsibilities including health, home affairs, family and energy.

After the last election, he was relegated to the backbench, and in the twilight of his political career he was not in the news much in the last three years.

Until last week, when he came up with the bizarre idea that the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation is to blame for Malta's bad score on the corruption index compiled by Transparency International, which was published earlier this month.

Malta, it must be remembered, collected just 46 of the 100 available points, the first time that the country did not surpass the halfway mark. It was, of course, the worst score ever, and Malta has only Hungary and Bulgaria behind it among European Union states.

Malta is closer to the bottom nation, South Sudan on 8 points, than the top nation, Denmark, with 90.

Farrugia, in Parliament, said that the government was not to blame for such a pathetic score. He then remarked on who is Malta's contact for Transparency International - the Daphne Foundation - to blatantly place culpability on it.

Perhaps Farrugia has missed the fact that his former leader, and former Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat, has been charged in court in connection with a now-rescinded deal which the government - of which Farrugia formed part - reached for the running of three private hospitals.

Or that three of his former colleagues on the Cabinet - Chris Fearne, Konrad Mizzi and Edward Scicluna - are in the same boat with Muscat.

Maybe Farrugia does not know about the corruption scandals that have ripped the country in the past years, such as those related to social services, identity cards and parking tickets. Or that on the eve of last year's election the addresses of a number of people were transferred to an as yet unfinished block of apartments in Siggiewi.

We could go on naming other things, but we have stopped at the more blatant of the scandals that have caused so much embarrassment to Farrugia's party and government. And yet, Labour has not yet learnt any lessons as it ploughs on with its plans to make it harder for the common citizen to request a magisterial inquiry.

This so-called reform, which is nothing more than another blow to the rule of law, will probably mean that Malta will obtain an ever worse score next year when Transparency International compiles its yearly list. Will Farrugia then blame the Daphne Foundation again?

It is no wonder that Transparency International reacted to Farrugia's statement, saying that it was "totally false", and reminding him that the agency uses 13 data sources to compile its information, including the World Bank, the World Economic Forum and the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The responsibility for Malta's poor performance on the index belongs to the government alone, Transparency International said.

Farrugia is denying the obvious when he says otherwise.