Updated | Corradino prison’s free-for-all ongoing for at least 13 years

Updated with Franco Debono's comments

Prison warders at the Corradino Correctional Facility enjoyed a free-for-all for at least 13 years, witnesses told a board of inquiry, where officials left work without official leave at their pleasure.

In details of an inquiry commissioned by home affairs minister Emmanuel Mallia at the CCF, following a surprise visit which found prison warders away without leave, the minister said that over 570 instances of officials leaving their workplace without permission or before their shifts were over were uncovered in an audit of work times.

Some 29 witnesses, prison officials and warders included, were interviewed by the ad hoc inquiry board Mallia commissioned.

Acting prison director Abraham Zammit tendered his resignation before the start of the inquiry, which has over 39 hours of testimonies on the alleged shortcomings inside the CCF.

Seven officials of varying ranks, the highest being a major, were identified as having left their place of work indiscriminately and at their pleasure, changing their working hours or taking leave unauthorized.

They are still in employment at CCF.

Abuses were said to have been ongoing for "at least 13 years", going by the testimony of one witness. Matters appear to have regulated themselves since the minister's surprise visit, Silvio Scerri, Mallia's chief of staff, said.

An unspecified number of these officials will be suspended, but disciplinary procedures will be taken by Ray Zammit, acting prison director, in accordance with public service rules.

Scerri did not want to disclose the name of an eighth individual who was described as the main facilitator for all these shortcomings. "The person will be dealt with individually," he said of this person, who is not mentioned in the report.

The inquiry was conducted by the director of the civil courts Frank Mercieca, who reported on the alleged abuse of Corradino prison warders of their employment obligations. The board's other members were outgoing Civil Protection director Patrick Murgo and Probation Services director Natalino Attard. Scerri has asked CCF employees to provide CCTV footage and log books to the investigation board, which will have to prepare the report by 24 April.

The report, which will be made available less the names of the prison warders and other security matters, also highlights a number of management shortcomings where no one was accountable and no chain of command was in place.

The prison management, Scerri said, only met twice in 18 months and it also turned out there were no round-the-clock duty officers.

"No one felt the need to follow the rules because no one felt they would face repercussions if they didn't," Scerri said of the way warders were at liberty to leave their place of work.

The report also stated that some officials went to work without wearing their uniforms.

The board found that over 25 months, 100 entries in the attendance sheets had been erased, with 42 belonging to the same person.

With no regulation in place on how prison officials could get in and out of the prisons, the board also found instances of unauthorised use of prison cars.

"The fall-in of staff had not been held for years and it is only now, with the presence of Assistant Commissioner Ray Zammit, that this is taking place," Scerri said.

According to Scerri, if the board hadn't started its investigation work when it did and seized the footage, he was sure that parts of the CCTV footage would have been erased.

"The excuses they came up with were so weak they didn't make any sense," he said, adding that some justified their actions with a "this is how it has always been".

Following the completion and presentation of this report, a separate board is expected to present a report by end May on the prison reform.

Speaking to MaltaToday, former Nationalist MP Franco Debono said that the inquiry confirmed the disastrous state of priisons under former home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici.

In May 2012, Mifsud Bonnici tendered his resignation after the former PN government lost a motion of no confidence against the minister tabled by the then Labour Opposition.

Debono had supported the motion following months of relentless campaigning in favour of a reform in justice and home affairs. The PN had responded by condemning Debono for failing to toe the party line and banned him from contesting elections on the party's ticket.

"This shows that my decision to vote in favour of the no confidence motion was sensible while the PN's condemnation was anything but just," Debono said.

"There is no greater injustice than being condemned for somebody else's incompetence."

Insisting that he held no grudges against the party or Mifsud Bonnici, Debono said that if the PN really wants to be closer to the people it should start by readdressing the injustice he suffered.

"If the PN's promise to change is credible it should start by readdressing injustices suffered by one of its former MPs."