NAO unable to investigate bribery allegations at Maltese consulate in Algiers

Allegations of bribery at Malta’s consulate in Algiers could not be investigated by the Auditor General but the manner in which the office operated “facilitated the incidence of allegations”.

The conclusion was reached by the National Audit Office after an investigation of allegations made in 2015 that bribes were being elicited from Algerian applicants wanting a visa to travel to Malta.

The report tabled in Parliament today said that the payment of bribes by citizens of another state to a government official or third parties, “does not fall within the remit of the NAO”.

Instead, the NAO focussed its attention on the institutional response to such allegations.

Read the full report here:

While the NAO said government’s response to the allegations made by an Algerian travel agent was “appropriate” because these were immediately referred to the police, it said the manner in which the consulate operated “somehow facilitated the incidence of allegations”.

It appears that the travel agent from whom most allegations originated did not provide evidence in support of his claims and after the case was referred to the Algerian police, “nothing illegal was established”.

However, the NAO did note that the consulate operated from the same building as the visa processing agent, VFS, which “blurred the distinction between the two from the perspective of applicants”.

This was further aggravated by the difficulties encountered by prospective applicants when seeking to schedule appointments with the VFS.

“In this office’s understanding, the preferential treatment of agents in terms of the scheduling of appointments readily contributed to allegations by others,” the NAO said.

The NAO found gaps in the screening process, which the consul attributed to a lack of resources. This resulted in “a less than optimal system of vetting applicants”, the NAO said, adding that no interviews were held.

“The extent to which this and other shortcomings could be attributed to the lack of experience of the consul is debatable, with the language-related issues identified in correspondence reviewed by this office compounding matters,” the NAO said.

The consul was found to lack the necessary experience required for the running of the consulate with the NAO pointing out his limited knowledge of languages spoken in Algeria.

The NAO traced correspondence in which the consul requested a translation of emails from French to English.

But the NAO acknowledged that the Maltese consulate’s high refusal rate may have had an impact on agents. The refusal rate was deemed significant when compared to that of other EU member states represented in Algeria.

“Ultimately, the NAO is of the opinion that better controls in the visa vetting process could have been implemented; however, it must be acknowledged that it was not always possible to detect persons who intended to abusively travel to Malta,” the report said.

Between March 2014 and September 2015, the period reviewed by the NAO, the consulate in Algiers received 14,640 applications, of which 6,779 were issued a visa while 7,589 were refused. The remaining 272 applications were either closed, discontinued, revoked or annulled.

Foreign Ministry reaction

Reacting to the findings, the Foreign Ministry said it took note of the NAO report and would be analysing it in detail to determine what actions it would take.