Repubblika said that that the risk of conflicts of interest had been identified by the OECD in its 2023 of Malta’s integrity framework, and was subsequently ignored by the government, with the NGO saying that the latest scandal surrounding now former Minister Roderick Galdes is evidence of why recommendations to address this were ignored.

Galdes resigned as Minister on Saturday evening weeks after being embroiled in a scandal related to a penthouse he bought in Gozo and on the eve of a new story which was to expand on alleged links between his family and contractors.

Repubblika noted how Galdes’s resignation took place in anticipation of the publication of new revelations by the Times of Malta. “This underlines the seriousness of the information now in the public domain and the extent to which it was known, or should have been known, within government circles,” the NGO said.

It noted in a statement on Sunday that what is emerging is not an isolated episode, but a pattern that goes to the heart of Malta’s systemic failure to regulate conflicts of interest. “A minister entrusted with oversight of the housing sector appears to have been operating in an environment where family and commercial interests intersected with public contracts, without effective safeguards, scrutiny, or consequences,” the NGO said.

“This is precisely the kind of risk identified by the OECD in its 2023 review of Malta’s public integrity framework. The OECD warned that Malta lacks clear and enforceable rules to prevent and manage conflicts of interest, that asset and interest declarations are weak and poorly verified, and that oversight mechanisms are fragmented and ineffective,” it added.

Repubblika said that the OECD made concrete and detailed recommendations to Malta in 2023. These included: establishing a clear legal definition of conflict of interest, abuse of power and misconduct in public life; strengthening the system of asset and interest declarations to include family and related-party interests and to make those declarations verifiable; creating real sanctions for ethical breaches rather than symbolic procedures; and reforming oversight institutions so that they operate independently of political control and are capable of investigating and sanctioning ministers and senior officials effectively.

“The OECD explicitly warned that without these reforms, Malta would remain structurally vulnerable to exactly the kind of blurred relationships between public office and private business interests now exposed in this case,” the NGO said.

The government chose to ignore these recommendations, it noted.

“Instead, it moved in the opposite direction: abolishing the requirement to declare assets held by ministers’ spouses, concealing ministers’ asset declarations from the public, and leaving Malta without meaningful transparency at the very moment when risks of corruption were most acute,” the NGO said.

“The result is a fragmented and dysfunctional anti-corruption framework,” it added.

“The Permanent Commission Against Corruption remains permanently irrelevant. The police remain institutionally reluctant to investigate politicians. Oversight bodies lack either the powers or the will to act decisively. These are not accidental weaknesses. They are the predictable outcome of political choices designed to preserve impunity,” the NGO said.

It added that the FIAU appears to have identified red flags years ago. Yet no effective institutional response followed. This raises serious questions not only about individual conduct, but about how many warnings have been ignored, buried, or neutralised by a system that protects those in power.

“At the very least, this case establishes clear political responsibility. But it also provides strong grounds for full and independent criminal investigation into the conduct of all parties involved, including the minister, his family connections, and the contractors who benefited from public contracts,” the group said.

Repubblika thanked Times of Malta for its continued commitment to investigative journalism and acknowledges the role of civil society and activists, Dr Jason Azzopardi in particular, for persisting in bringing these issues to light.

“This case is not merely about one minister. It is about a state that was warned, in detail and in advance, about how corruption would occur, and chose to do nothing to prevent it.”