Robert Abela should back off from criticising ongoing hospitals inquiry

There is reason to question the length of time it is taking Magistrate Gabriella Vella to conclude the inquiry into the hospitals scandal. But it should not be the Prime Minister or anybody in government, who should do the questioning. 

More than four years after Repubblika petitioned the courts to open a magisterial inquiry into the hospitals contract, nobody knows at what stage the investigation has arrived. 

That an inquiry takes long to conclude is not something out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, we have come to expect that magisterial inquiries are like some sort of black hole – we know when they start but have no visibility as to when they will end. 

The hospitals inquiry is hardly the only one to enter this black hole. Indeed, information tabled in parliament in April last year showed that there were nearly 1,700 magisterial inquiries that remained pending, with the oldest one dating back to 1979. 

There are countless victims of road and workplace accidents out there, who remain without justice because inquiries into the cases they were involved in have not wrapped up. 

Although there may be varied reasons for the delays, this is unfair on the victims and the potential suspects. 

We’ve said it last year and we repeat it again now: The judiciary is independent but it cannot function as if it operates in a vacuum. The judiciary cannot be swayed by public opinion or political pressure because that would be a disservice to justice but it has to be sensitive to society’s expectations. 

The hospitals inquiry has significant and serious political ramifications. The magistrate is probing the involvement of three former ministers – Chris Cardona, Konrad Mizzi and Edward Scicluna – in the deal. While Cardona and Mizzi today have no public role, Scicluna is the governor of the Central Bank of Malta. 

But the inquiry is also probing the actions of former prime minister Joseph Muscat, who resigned in 2019 on the back of revelations that the man indicted as the mastermind of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder, Yorgen Fenech, had strong links to Castille. 

Admittedly, the hospitals inquiry is not a simple open and shut case. It not only involves Maltese players but also foreign individuals and companies. The magistrate may have to receive information from foreign jurisdictions, which in itself can delay the process if cooperation is scant. 

And one would expect that the magistrate will leave no stone unturned to ensure that if there is suspicion of wrongdoing this can eventually be prosecuted with success. 

The magistrate’s job is to collect evidence, preserve it and determine whether enough proof exists at face value that warrants a criminal investigation and prosecution. The inquiry will not find guilt or otherwise but on the basis of the evidence at hand recommend whether anybody can be charged and if so with what criminal offence. 

Given the people involved, most especially Muscat, any recommendation to prosecute will undoubtedly raise the political temperature. 

This should not stop the magistrate from reaching the conclusions she deems fit but she also has to understand that every word and comma in her report need to be used judiciously because what she says has repercussions that go beyond the individuals involved. 

Within this context, we have serious reservations about Prime Minister Robert Abela’s harsh criticism of the time it is taking the magistrate to conclude her investigation.  

Given that the subject matter of the inquiry involves a government contract – a flagship project of the Muscat administration – and implicates ex-politicians who held very senior roles, Abela should have desisted from his public criticism. 

Abela has waded into dangerous territory. His criticism undermines the inquiry in the eyes of Labour Party supporters and adds fodder to the fire before it even lights up. 

The Prime Minister has disarmed himself of the moral authority to tell his supporters to back off and allow the institutions to do their job if the inquiry recommends criminal action be taken against his predecessor. And flirting with a Joseph Muscat candidacy in the European Parliament election makes Abela’s actions look all the more sinister. 

If the Prime Minister truly believes that magisterial inquiries should be more efficient (they should), he should use the legislative route to enact those changes that may be needed to have a speedier and fairer justice system… for all. He is also in the position of providing all the resources that may be necessary to lubricate the wheels of justice… for all. 

His concerns and questioning must not start and stop with inquiries of his choosing. If the system is broken it is his duty to try and fix it… for all.