The decision to grant a Presidential Pardon to all those who fraudulently received disability benefits, even if it stipulates that they must pay back the money, is worrying.

It would be easier to digest if a couple or a few were offered the pardon because of what they know in order to testify against others, but to effectively offer this pardon to absolutely everyone who took the benefits they weren’t entitled to sends a worrying message that the government will come to the rescue of abusers.

They would still need to pay the money back, but court decisions have already said as much in their judgements anyway. This will clean the conduct sheets of all those who wrongly took the funds.

The Malta Chamber of Commerce said that the presidential pardon that has been granted to the recipients of social benefits in return to testify against the perpetrators of the scheme “further reinforces a culture of impunity. It also undermines the newly appointed President – whereas many think that a presidential pardon lies completely within the prerogative of the President, in actual fact, the request for a presidential pardon is on the advice received.”

Here, one must also point out that the President made a very strong maiden speech when she took up her post, but her agreement with such pardons does tarnish the way she may be viewed.

Now yes, there are those who took the funds who might truly be in need of support to get by. But that is a government failing. The government must do more to ensure the people can support themselves. It often boasts about economic growth, but that growth means nothing if there are people struggling.

But regardless, it is not an excuse for corruption.

Pardons are, in of themselves, controversial. They are forgiving wrongdoing, and in this case the people being pardoned will need to testify against the bigger fish. But here again, one must seriously question whether the pardon really needed to be offered to everyone who received the benefit but weren’t eligible.

At least the pardon is not going to be offered to the so called big fish. One thing is for sure, if the prosecution now fumbles the case against the big fish responsible, resignations will be required.

Another point that must be made is that the Nationalist Party has made a very serious allegation, that the benefits fraud was effectively buying votes.

This needs to be investigated and government pushing for the granting of pardons in this way could potentially be viewed as a possible extension of this, especially given this happened so close to an election.

Now that the government has announced that the pardon will be offered to all those who took the benefits wrongly, the PN said that the government has an obligation to state who requested a pardon, and to ensure that all those who were part of the racket – including “past and present Labour politicians”- are investigated and charged before the courts for justice to be done.

One must remember that there is the possibility that there are other big fish involved who have yet to be identified. Let’s not forget that one of the five men charged in court over the benefits fraud racket has alleged that police officers and public prosecutors did not reply to an offer he made to give sworn testimony that promised to provide information relating to a public official who was involved.

He alleged that in 2019 a person “who was and is a public official within the Social Security Ministry gave me a burner phone through which only phone calls regarding applications based on fraudulent certificates [would] be made.” The public official’s name was not published in the social media post. This also requires serious investigation, and there can be no excuses.