2024: the year the Police Commissioner registered his absence

Serving successfully in a top leadership role within state institutions requires strong ideological and patriotic conviction. These roles are often not financially rewarding but carry immense responsibility. This is why only those with a strong and determined will to achieve their public goals are ultimately able to distinguish themselves in public service. Others, may distinguish themselves for their corruption or their failures.

2024 was the year in which the failures of Police Commissioner were exhibited blatantly and publicly in his incompetence, absence and denials. When we saw the dozens of Maltese and foreign individuals walking to Court to face charges of fraud, bribery and money laundering over the Vitals and Steward Healthcare public deals, the main question on the local observers was: where is Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa?

The suspects were even brought to court under arrest, despite the gravity of the charges, giving the ex-Premier, Joseph Muscat the chance to walk into Court as a hero as he was cheered by his supporters who gathered outside the law courts to support him.  The case has been prompted by a Magisterial Inquiry which developed into the widest official investigation in political corruption ever conducted in Malta. Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa said that the Police was involved in the investigation, but they don’t have an investigation of their own. He didn’t even show up in Court to show his face in front of the ex-Premier and his previous political patron, Joseph Muscat. In an interview, he then said he could communicate with his officers in Court through “technology”.

Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa reminds me of the 9AM to 5PM (9AM to 13:00 in Summer), civil servant who would bring all the possible excuses in the world, which include legal provisions and government regulations, to justify his incompetence. Prime Minister Robert Abela renewed his contract because as Joseph Muscat once told the the Prime Minister before he entered office, “Angelo doesn’t rock the boat“. They even rewarded him with a salary increase.

The Police Commissioner likes to take it easy on major white collar criminals. His apologists claim that he is doing a good job on clamping down on drugs given the recent large seizures, but those of us who lived through Police Commissioner John Rizzo’s days remember a time when cocaine and heroin were so short in the market that social workers pleaded with the commissioner to allow some supply to come in to ensure the medical safety of the hardest of addicts. Today, cocaine and amphetamines are abundant and available as ever.

A war on drugs will not impress us because we have seen it already. What we haven’t seen so far is the Police’s war against corruption and sleaze in public institutions and the government.  That’s a hard call to make with a Police Commissioner who doesn’t want to rock the boat. With an oversized loan for the purchase of his villa, the Police Commissioner is best financially served if he is trusted enough to keep being appointed multiple times, until, at least, he pays off his mega-loan.

Soon, there will also be the unravelling of the Electrogas inquiry: another Magisterial Inquiry. The Police have been sleeping on the corrupt Electrogas project because it strikes at the heart of Joseph Muscat’s corruption: it is also the case with a direct relation to the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The Police Commissioner’s complacency allowed the fraudulent project to keep milking profits from the public. Today, Electrogas is still making a profit while Enemalta is technically bankrupt without government subsidies.

These were just some of his failures in 2024, but in reality there were many others. His soft way in dealing with the Serbian criminal groups, the escape of Jomic Calleja and the murder of his wife in Libya Marzia Calleja Maatouk, and even the murder of Nicolette Ghirxi by her ex-boyfriend despite her police reports. This was also the year when we discovered that a clique of grifting ex-intelligence officers conducted a disinformation campaign against the previous Deputy Prime Minister, Chris Fearne. Even on such a matter of national security, the Police Commissioner seems unfazed, and unbothered. We also got to know about this from foreign journalists and not the Police and the campaign had been ongoing for months and years with the Police doing absolutely nothing about it, and didn’t even inform (or warn) the Deputy Prime-Minister himself.

The Police Commissioner is not very liked by his top officers, and alienated many low-ranking officers by restricting over-time payments. Civil society groups want his resignation, but he keeps deluding himself that he is doing a good job with surveys about the work of the Police. The Police Commissioner prefers to to play politics than fighting organised crime in all its forms. Since he is deluding himself to be popular enough, he may very well allow himself the privilege to keep his political masters unfettered by investigations on government corruption: tactically, this is just another civil-service styled abdication from duty.

Yet the Police Force is not an institution which should be used to play politics. Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa is either upholding the law or he isn’t and when it comes to organised crime, especially that which is connected to politics, he prefers “not to rock the boat” as the ex-Premier used to say. I don’t think the Police Commissioner is totally stupid and oblivious to the reality of the level of corruption in the country. He’s very much guilty of abetting and facilitating corrupt behaviour in politics by leaving it free from any serious Police investigation: just like when he allowed Justyne Caruana’s case to become time-barred. Under a different government, he should be able to explain his actions (or non-action) to a public inquiry.