The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life denied Arnold Cassola’s request to investigate a discrepancy in the Prime Minister’s declaration of assets, citing that the complaint was time-barred after 30 days of the issue becoming publicly known. You can read his decision here.
The discrepancy in the Prime Minister’s declaration of assets was originally my story and was published here. Arnold Cassola, probably out of pettiness, waited for another media outlet to cover the story so as to avoid referencing the website. I’m pretty sure Arnold Cassola had read our story originally because it was then one of the most popular stories of this website. We eventually also explained that the discrepancy was due to the fact that the Prime Minister was making use of his wife’s bank accounts. Our story was so complete we even published all the evidence. I then followed-up the story in my latest book where I revealed that the FIAU even opened their own inquiry about the story and even corresponded with the bank about it (Bank of Valletta).
Eventually, the Prime Minister referenced my original story to the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life to make his point that the story had been public knowledge for some time before the complaint was submitted.
You can’t make this stuff up. Yet, what is very interesting is that a story that could indict a Prime Minister for money laundering was used in a technical manner to avoid an investigation altogether.
That tells you a lot about the our current state of rule of law and “let the institutions work”.
I am not sure about the legal precedents used by the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life. However, what I am sure about, thanks to various government sources, is that recently there has been a lot of pressure by the government on the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life to avoid various inquiries including those about Clayton Bartolo and Adrian Delia. We are still waiting for more updates to further cover this story.
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