The recent justifiable outrage of the British public in relation to the MPs’ expenses scandal, purportedly claimed to be a direct consequence of undertaking their duties has been well documented. In the aftermath of the furore created by such infamous behaviour in what is now referred to as “The House of Frauds” when a number of British MPs manipulated the system to suit their own avaricious needs by submitting imaginative and creative expense claims, can we reliably be assured that no such abuses are perpetrated here in Malta by our own lawmakers and MEPs, or is this merely a case peculiarly unique to British MPs?
Are our MPs and MEPs immune from swine flu contracted by getting their snouts caught in the public-purse trough? How is the citizen in Malta able to access our MPs’ and MEPs’ accounts, expenditure and earnings? What are their expense allowances and how much does each and every one of them claim, and how are such justified?
Never more so than in these current financially toxic times are such magnanimous and pivotal key elements of good governance required to be deployed, and seen to be so. For it is our money they are spending and it must all be accounted for. As Gordon Brown will undoubtedly ascertain such scandals bring down governments, and he doesn’t have to research ancient archives or look far to see that it does happen, as similar to the “mani pulite” debacle in Italy in the 1990s which effectively destroyed the incumbent government there at that time, to name but one such example of people power.
The electorate (taxpayers) demand to know how much, when, where and why their money is spent by their elected representative, and are no longer prepared to sit like Banquo’s ghost and blithely accept the avoidance of making such a vital issue unavailable and obscured from public access and scrutiny.
The MEPs’ former travel expense gravy train is about to be derailed, however for years they could claim and invariably did, fully-flexible airline travel tickets whilst actually purchasing massively discounted cheaper tickets, such as fixed-date or cut-priced, and pocketing the vast difference. Again, they were allowed to get away with this due to the fact that this was their allowance and as such was their perceived inalienable right to receive such without any recognised need to provide receipts against actual expenditure and only claim for what expenses they incurred! However, the oldest dodge and fiddle in the book is still being perpetrated to this day and concerns the daily “attendance allowance” in the European Parliament. For all an MEP has to do to receive this fee is merely sign-on for the day then flit off wherever elsewhere without fear of recrimination or come-back.
It is said that the acronym MP now signifies Money Pincher/Pilferer and that only one man ever entered parliament with honourable intentions, and that man was Guy Fawkes!
Whilst some of those British MPs who got caught with their sticky fingers in the cookie jar, to coin a phrase, took the “honourable” course of action and resigned, would such a scenario ever occur here in Malta? As it is apparent that such a word as ‘resign’ is not registered in our parliamentary lexicon.
Even the most exalted post in the British Parliament, that of Speaker of the House of Commons, was embroiled in this fiasco and was compelled to resign (in actual fact he jumped rather than be pushed, and he is extremely fortunate that his actions did not occur in earlier times, for then it would have been a case of “off with his head”). That great essayist, Francis Bacon, was also not immune to committing corruption and his glittering political career ended in ignominious disgrace when found guilty of such in 1621.
However, his subsequent confession should serve as the benchmark for all politicians in accepting such guilt by not offering any mitigating lame excuses in attempting to squirm out of and justify such disgraceful behaviour, when he stated: “My Lords, it is my act, my hand and my heart”.
What a class act criminal he was and all politicians should take heed of the way to go-literally! We need all expenditure and accounts submitted by our lawmakers to be made known and readily available to public scrutiny and for such expenditure to be matched by actual costs incurred to prevent abuses of power and the system, to ensure transparency and accountability. Do you think we will get it – or am I being subjunctive?
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