The monitoring of the soldiers' control room in an exact and specified area is a possibility which should be explored is one of the recommendations made by a board of inquiry entrusted with finding out what went wrong last month when drugs being kept under AFM watch were stolen from an army compound.

Such monitoring, the report said, would ascertain that work is being done. It added that any monitoring would need to be done without intruding on the privacy of workers, in conformity with privacy and data laws.

The recommendations of the inquiry stated that there should also be a consideration for possibly installing intrusion alarms along the fence, as well as other places where such an alarm may be required.

The inquiry noted that two requests had been made with regard to the relevant container where the drugs were being stored. One request was from the Courts, which was to destroy the remainder of the drugs, whilst the other request was from the AFM, which was for the drugs to be "taken off the AFM as the number of photographs, videos, and articles that have recently circulated on various social media have exposed the confidentiality of this sensitive content".

The board of inquiry stated that a present problem is that there exists only one incinerator in Malta where drugs can be destroyed, "and this incinerator is old and malfunctions often". Therefore, the inquiry recommended that there needs to be a new incinerator which can handle large deliveries of seized drugs to be destroyed. The inquiry also stated that the drug stockpile to be destroyed should ideally be kept nearby or in the same building as the incinerator after all necessary risk assessments have been carried out.

An additional problem pointed out by the recommendations of the inquiry is that there are no places in Malta which are large enough and secure for drugs as well as other exhibited or confiscated objects to be stored. The inquiry recommended that there should ideally be one place where all exhibits or proceeds of crime should be kept, as it added that the Courts should invest in a compound.

Furthermore, the inquiry stated that an exercise should be carried out to decide what should be done with the vehicles kept by the police in Pembroke and Ta' Kandja. These vehicles have been there for some time and take up a lot of space which could otherwise be used for another purpose.

The inquiry said that discussions need to be had regarding other solutions on how seized drugs can be destroyed or exported. It said that the assistance of counterparts in other countries who seize much greater quantities of drugs than in Malta should be requested. It added that how they deal with this problem should be studied, "keeping in mind the limitations of our country".