Heads must roll

The mess on the ministerial salary increase that led to a parliamentary motion tabled by Opposition leader Joseph Muscat is the biggest embarrassment that any Maltese Prime Minister has been subjected to since Independence in 1964.

Many do not agree with my already expressed opinion that the increases were justified, but this is not the point. Even if the increases were a quarter of what they actually were, the real scandal is in the way government’s decision was put into force by the civil service and the way the people of Malta were kept in the dark about it.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi says this was the result of an administrative mistake and I believe him. But who is responsible for this administrative mistake? Under the government of Lawrence Gonzi, people who were deemed responsible for much lesser administrative mistakes have had to resign and this gave the message that his leadership wanted to reinforce the notion of accountability and responsibility for one’s actions. That is as it should be.

However, in this messy case Lawrence Gonzi has taken a different tack. He says the mess is all the result of an administrative mistake and stops there. Is it any wonder that people start asking whether the notion that administrative mistakes lead to consequences is not a universal principle as in practice it is subject to selectivity? I would have thought that the more serious an administrative mistake is, the more serious are the consequences.

The people are now faced with a situation where the administration does not follow its own much vaunted principles announced out for the approval and the admiration of the common citizen.

The considerate way in which dissenting Nationalist MPs have tackled the problem when having to take a decision on Joseph Muscat’s motion should not be abused of by being part of a process in which the dust is swept under the carpet.

I understand that these MPs did not want to appear as if they are all out to destabilise the government that depends on their support, more so after the divorce referendum episode. But this is no green light for Gonzi to starting acting as if nothing serious really happened – ‘come se non fosse niente’, as the Italians say.

Is Lawrence Gonzi covering up for someone whom he wouldn’t like to ditch? If this is the case, then this is yet another grave mistake – practically equivalent to the administrative mess that led to Lawrence Gonzi’s greatest embarrassment.

The Prime Minister is duty bound to find out who is responsible for this mistake; even carry out an investigation in order to establish who should carry the can. He should go public about this and ask whoever it is to resign from whichever perch he sits on. There is no other decent way out. The country will not forget this mess unless the PM acts in this way. Heads must roll.