Police investigating 'all cases' of alleged corruption, no confirmation on Panama probe

The Home Affairs Minister on Wednesday would not confirm specifically that Minister Konrad Mizzi was being investigated by the police after for any involvement in the Panama Papers scandal, although he did insist that all cases of alleged corruption mentioned by the opposition in a three-day debate on amendments to the Police Act were being investigated by the police.

Carmelo Abela was speaking in Parliament at the end of the second reading on a bill proposing amendments to the Police Act.

When he stated that all cases were being investigated, the leader of the Opposition, Simon Busuttil, asked on a point of order, if the minister was confirming – for the first time – if the police were in fact investigating Mizzi, who was discovered to have opened a secret account in Panama.

But Abela reiterated his earlier statement.

“Without mentioning any particular case, I can say that the police are investigating all the cases you mentioned, and which you accused the police of ignoring,” he said.

Busuttil then attempted to ask the minister why the police investigation was taking so long, but his question was not allowed.

“Ironically, the only case the police stopped investigating in recent years was the CapitalOne investigation, which was stopped when the name of the PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami came up in the investigations,” Abela said.

Abela said that, despite all its accusations and innuendo, the opposition had failed to mention at least one case to prove that the police force in general, and the police commissioner in particular, were politically motivated.

 “I doubt if the opposition MPs who spoke in this debate even bothered to read the bill being discussed,” he said. “It is obvious that the proposals are aimed at establishing greater accountability within the Corps, as well as introducing more checks and balances.”

Abela said that the opposition had failed to realise, for example, that reports of the police board of governance would be presented in Parliament periodically for analysis and discussion by MPs.

On the opposition’s recommendation that the police commissioner be appointed by a two-thirds parliamentary majority, Abela said that the appointment would remain the prerogative of the government of the day, as had always been the case.

“And I must inform the opposition – which seems so focused on the current commissioner, having spoken about him so much – our proposal that a five-year term be introduced for police commissioners will not apply in the case of Lawrence Cutajar, but will come into effect when a new commissioner is appointed.”

Earlier, Marlene Farrugia of the Democratic Party said that politics had no place within the police force especially since it was demoralising and demotivating members of the corps.

She also called for fairer renumeration for members of the police force and for all allowances, overtime and other payments due to be paid on time.

PN MP said all police commissioners had to be praised for their service, even if many of their appointments were politically motivated.

Opposition whip David Agius asked why the police commissioner had not initiated one single investigation without outside prompting.

“I ask why, for example, the police does not investigate how certain local football clubs spend €1.7 million in one year,” he said.

“Everyone knows how low the attendance at football games is, so these clubs could hardly be earning all this money from ticket sales,” he said. “So why does the police commissioner not check where these clubs are getting the money from, instead of focusing all his attention on his favourite Italian football club.”

Agius also recommended that some civilian staff could be employed to open and manage police stations when all police officers were out on duty.