Repubblika demands political responsibility be shouldered over disability benefit scandal

Civil society NGO Repubblika have questioned who shall be shouldering political responsibility for the disability benefit scandal revealed last Sunday.

“We cannot allow those who are politically responsible to hide behind legal procedures. Legal accountability is not enough; political accountability must also be upheld. This is what happens in true democracies,” NGO President Robert Aquilina said outside Castille on Tuesday.

Former Labour MP Silvio Grixti has recently been implicated in an extensive scheme spanning several years, involving the fraudulent acquisition of monthly disability benefits by hundreds of individuals who were not legitimately entitled to them.

The family doctor Silvio Grixti provided false medical documentation to assist people, often residing in strongholds of the Labour Party like Żabbar, Żejtun, and Paola, in fraudulently obtaining monthly social benefits meant for severe disabilities they did not actually suffer from.

The operation enabled claimants to receive monthly payments, averaging around €450, from the social security department.

Aquilina said the silence from the authorities has been deafening, with the government and police being “conspicuously silent”.

“The courts have been lenient with those who illegally received these benefits, but why haven't the Prime Minister and the Police Commissioner held a press conference on this scandal? Why haven't they provided an explanation to the public?” he said.

He said members of government involved in the scheme need to be prosecuted. “Only the beneficiaries of the scheme were prosecuted. The big fish got away.”

Aquilina also called on the Prime Minister to answer whether he was personally involved in the scheme, and when he was made aware of it.

“Mr. Prime Minister, we ask you: Who is politically responsible for this fraudulent system? Are you responsible? If not you, then who?” he said.

He said the NGO will not rest until criminal and political responsibility is established.