The way the contract of the Delimara Power Station extension was awarded to BWSC should make us take the necessary steps to remove what is rotten inside our political system. Apart from accepting the recommendations of the Auditor General to learn from it and improve our public procurement practices and the governance of government departments and public corporations, the BWSC story raises issues that we should address if we don’t want our democracy to turn into a kleptocracy: a country where a few individuals use public institutions for their own personal greed.
Even an internal report prepared for the PN to analyse their defeat at the European Parliament elections in 2004 concluded that thousands of voters abandoned the PN disgusted by one example after another “that those in power take care of themselves.” Many of the PN activists who spoke to the Commission appointed to draw up the report expressed their concern that “the Party in Government had lost its ‘soul’… Even top party officials admitted to us that they feel that the PN has lost the ‘high moral ground’, which means that the party has cut itself off from the values it embraces.”
A few individuals use their influential networks to shape public decisions in their private interest. The demarcation between public good and private interest does not exist for these chosen few. Public institutions, laws and regulations are weaker than the private relationships of these individuals. To do politics in a new way and for the common good we need a cultural change and a number of institutional measures to clean up our politics. Having a system where ministers visit villas to take packets of money from people who submit tenders for public contracts, having contractors visiting party officials with money in hand… creates a culture of cronyism and corruption.
For many years now, the PN has perfected a system where people who are awarded public contracts are placed on what is referred to as the ‘JS’ list, receptions held for them at party headquarters, where they turn up with money in hand to fill the PN coffers. This system has a corrupting influence on our politics. If we want to strengthen our democracy we have to find ways of regulating private contributions to political parties and introduce public funding to liberate policy making and public decisions from the strong pressures of those who fund our political parties, especially the PN.
Otherwise we will continue to have more BWSC stories where not only goalposts are moved to help a preferred team score, the football ground itself is tilted to favour the team, the rules of the game are changed accordingly, the man appointed as the referee used to play in the same team and once the trophy is won, more rewards are heaped on the winner.
We need a robust Freedom of Information Act. The Freedom of Information Act we passed in parliament last year is too weak and restrictive. It will not go a long way to give citizens the right to know what information is held by public authorities. It is not strong enough “to promote added transparency and accountability in government.” Where effective Freedom of Information Acts have been introduced and successfully implemented, abuses and corruption have been curbed. The quality of policy-making and governance has improved and politicians and public institutions have regained the trust of citizens.
It is true that effective Freedom of Information Acts cost money to operate. But corruption, maladministration and distrust cost much more. A Freedom of Information Act is effective if it makes it more difficult for governments to hide the truth. We are among the last EU member states to have introduced such an Act and what we have introduced is too feeble. We should open government to serious public scrutiny. I agree with Tony Blair that the quality of democracy that a country has also depends on the quality of Freedom of Information Act that it has. He said: “Information is power, and any government’s attitude about sharing information with the people actually says a great deal about how it views power itself, and how it views the relationship between itself and the people who elected it.”
We also need a Whistleblower Act that encourages people to report abuse and corruption that is happening around them. A lot of people know of the abuses that are going on around them but they look the other way as they are afraid of speaking up. Especially in a small society where people know each other and opportunities for alternative jobs are limited, a prevailing culture of silence helps corrupt individuals get away with murder. In the BWSC case, the Auditor General did not find ‘hard evidence’ of corruption for the simple reason that several individuals who played a major part in this story did not cooperate in the investigation and hid the truth. But a number of other individuals who knew what happened were afraid to speak up, as exposing their bosses would have opened them to cruel retaliation.
I agree with Dr Joseph Muscat’s commitment to disqualify for local public tenders companies that have been blacklisted by institutions like the World Bank and the European Investment Bank. In the BWSC case Enemalta and the Department of Contracts failed to screen the companies included in the bid when most of them have been involved in cases of bribery and corruption. The Labour leader has also pledged to remove all time-barred immunity for politicians so that even after 10 years they can be investigated. Politicians and public officials who are found guilty of corruption will have the repay back the money they took. It is also a good idea to give an amnesty to those individuals and companies who are ready to disclose information on cases of political corruption.
Action will be taken against officials and public employees who withhold and destroy information that throws light on corruption. Persons running public corporations will have to declare their personal assets and higher ethical behaviour is expected of them. A Parliamentary commissioner for ethical standards will be appointed to monitor the financial interests of all members of parliament including ministers, report his findings to the Speaker and the public.
If we do not want our political system to turn into a hideout for thieves wholesale we must take all the necessary steps to clean up our politics. If we fail to do so, distrust will continue to grow and our democracy will die completely or drift along as a hollow shell.
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