The Indy changes tack… it says the people inside the presidency are ‘one big family’

Last week, the newspaper’s leader called MaltaToday ‘scandal-mongering’ and lauded President George Abela as the “most popular” and “most loved” person in Malta, urging him to answer to the reports by this newspaper.

Now Grima’s front-page report today says “further media investigation is slowly piecing together some bits which have beenlef unclear over the past weeks.”

Grima is referring to MaltaToday’s coverage of the presidential ruckus that saw the resignation of Olaph Terribile, secretary to the presidency, after clashing with senior aides over breaches of financial regulations; concerns raised by the finance ministry on the breach of financial rules; and the employment of two directors of Image 2000, the audiovisual firm of which the president’s press secretary, Marica Mizzi, is its company secretary.

Grima now says it is “unclear how Ms Mizzi was chosen for her post as no call for applications seems to have been made” and quotes insiders who say Abela was Mizzi’s lawyer in her marriage annulment proceedings: no wonder his story ran with the title ‘One big happy family at San Anton’.

“This is where things start to get unusual… not only has Ms Mizzi found a job at San Anton but also her former husband and his partner, it would seem,” Grima writes, adding a dose of irony in the end: “According to her Facebook, her favourite quote is Carpe Diem seize the moment.”

A far cry from his leader last Saturday, written the day the President announced a government inquiry into the alleged leakage of documents by Terribile. Last week the leader called on George Abela’s office to relinquish its “disdainful silence” – referring to the fact it has not even answered MaltaToday’s questions in the first place – and react to the reports. “It is true that the Head of the State, like monarchy, does not ‘do’ libels but there is an infinity of options between doing nothing and coming out with guns blazing… It is simply not enough to fob off questions by words spoken in confidence,” the editorial stated.

At the same time, it pointed out how the President’s charity, the Community Chest Fund, already falls foul of transparency requirements because it refuses to register with the Commissioner for NGOs. While calling on the President to restore credibility to the fund by registering it, the Indy denounces MaltaToday’s reports on presidential spending as ‘scurrilous’.

It also shows disdain towards the whistleblowers in the story, who like all whistleblowers in the economic history of the country, remain unprotected by a law that has been promised by this government.

Yesterday, MaltaToday reported government sources claiming President George Abela had raced against time to announce a governmental inquiry last Saturday, in a bid to thwart a 'hypothesis' of a potential leak of information from his office to the media. He announced the inquiry before it was even set up.

Government sources said Abela had “twisted government’s arm” by announcing the inquiry when it wasn’t even yet set up, putting also in clear difficulty the Director General for Government Information Martin Bugelli who was not in a position to give replies as to who was to lead the board and what the terms of reference were.ugelli, who sat right next to President Abela during the press conference at San Anton Palace told journalists when asked: "I don't know about the terms of reference, nor who will head it... you will probably have to wait until next week."