Private matter, my ass!

I really thought that fraud was one of the more serious matters that a politician could face.

But since when is defrauding an institution such as the EU 'a private matter'? Well, if you did not hear the news, Home Affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici has stated that the issue of the councillors who pleaded not guilty for having defrauded the European Commission of  €96,000 should be considered as a private matter.

Dr Carm Mifsud Bonnici is to me one of the most insipid politicians I have yet to encounter. When he talks he says a lot and yet expresses next to nothing. He is neither here, nor there, good nor bad, intelligent nor stupid, witty nor banal. He is simply a man in a nice looking suit with a decent look.

Mention one reform that he carried out and can be truly commended. Mention one political argument he ever put forward that remains imprinted in your grey matter.

One would suffice.

He is what the appendix is to the human body, an appendage with no real function.

For a home affairs minister to exculpate councillors from both sides of the political divide, because he simply does not have the proverbial balls to express what he believes is right or wrong, is simply unbelievable.

"The local councils' association members will have to decide on their own within the association itself. I cannot comment and have to wait until the final judgment. Whatever the outcome, they will have to decide within the private association itself," is what Mifsud Bonnici told MaltaToday, after addressing a conference by the LCA with the Association of Local Democracy Agencies.

This legalistic talk just reminds me of the gobbledygook response given by PN MEP Simon Busuttil to one of our journalists, when asked if he would be contesting the general elections. He first said that we had the wrong information and by that we understood that he would not stand. Later it transpired that he would decide to stand in the general election when they were announced.

In other words Simon Busuttil - who has aspirations to be PN leader - is of course very probably standing in the next election. There is little doubt in my mind.

Members of the Local Councils' Association were charged on 11, January of this year with defrauding the European Commission for the reimbursement of airline tickets at full cost rather than the purchased price. The councillors, who are all pleading not guilty to fraud, are Birkirkara deputy mayor Doris Borg; former Mellieha mayor Joseph Borg; San Lawrenz mayor Noel Formosa; Fgura executive secretary Oreste Alessandro; the president of the local councils' association and Kalkara mayor Michael Cohen; Qrendi local councillor Claudette Abela Baldacchino; former LCA president and Gzira councillor Ian Micallef. The European anti-fraud office, OLAF, had noticed inconsistencies when processing reimbursements of a large number to the association of airline tickets which all cost the same amount.

The total sum reimbursed by the European Council amounted to around €96,000 but hand-written invoices provided by the travel agency involved, had conflicting airline ticket amounts between the actual cost and purchase price.

Now let us put everything into perspective.

Is this case serious? Are we exaggerating?  Is there justification for pointing fingers at our elected councillors? Should the home affairs minister (until this year also justice minister) express his dismay at the state of affairs.

I could of course say that Carm Mifsud Bonnici is a balanced man. But if we really had to be objective, the true story is that Mifsud Bonnici does not have the temerity to stand up and be counted.

European ethics as a whole demand that when politicians face such damning accusations, they do not simply stand their turf but they resign or at least bow down.

I wonder what would someone like Simon Busuttil say about this?

And what would Joseph Muscat say about this too?

Nothing, at this very point, the least said the better.

Former justice minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici who should be setting standards should at least encourage this kind of ethic. 

It is the least he can do.

The very fact that he has chosen to look to keep his distance from any controversial is proof of his weak resolve when it comes to standing up for principles.

Nonetheless Mifsud Bonnici can be rather tenacious, more so when it comes to deciding how long we should take debating no confidence motions. In the House business committee he was quite perky with his counterpart Anglu Farrugia, and said: "that he was a lawyer and he knew how to extend the debate if he wanted to."

Extending the time for debate it seems are not linked to the necessity of having an intelligible debate but rather or more importantly about giving more time to the Nationalist party to prepare for the general elections.

This is the background to this short story.

In the meantime, we have all sorts of arguments that stability is not something which can be solved by elections. Which may be true.

What I do know is that stability is not something you can define, you either feel it or you don't. And if you ask me, this is not the kind the stability that encourages the right drive for business.