The Nationalist Party has said that the government is hiding behind the administrative report into the drug heist on army grounds in order to avoid having to shoulder responsibility.

“Robert Abela and Byron Camilleri are once again hiding behind an administrative inquiry report to avoid taking political responsibility for their failures,” the PN said in a statement.

The party said that neither it nor anyone else had ever suggested that Byron Camilleri personally went to steal the drugs from the container in Ħal-Far with a supermarket bag and that nobody in Malta or Gozo was calling for Camilleri’s resignation because he was supposed to be on guard duty watching over a container full of drugs.

“However, the responsibility for our country’s security falls squarely on Robert Abela’s Government and the Minister for Home Affairs and Security,” the PN said.

“Just as Byron Camilleri defended the status quo in prison when multiple deaths occurred under Alex Dalli’s leadership, without resigning at the time, today he is once again defending the status quo. The same report published today has exposed major failures, yet Camilleri is shifting the blame onto others instead of taking responsibility,” the party added.

It noted that the report highlights conflicting versions from different Government entities, saying that “this is what happens when institutions are controlled by those pulling the strings.”

“When a Minister who has had countless reasons to resign still waits for someone else to tell him to step down before he actually does, it becomes clear that this Government is failing not by accident, but by design,” the statement reads.

The PN said that Byron Camilleri remains responsible for the breakdown within the Armed Forces of Malta’s command structure and will continue to be a symbol of national insecurity. “He must take political responsibility.”

“The fact that Camilleri has remained in office and that Robert Abela did not accept his so-called resignation is yet another certificate of failure for a Government that has let down everyone except itself”, the statement concluded.

The statement was signed by PN MP Darren Carabott, who is the party’s Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, Security and Reforms.

In reply, the Labour Party said the PN cannot even accept an independent report by a former judge.  It is doing so to continue to play the partisan game, not a surprising move from an Opposition which walks out of Parliament twice in a row.