Malta needs a "reboot" and minister Ian Borg should do the right thing and resign, public figures and activists said on Sunday in reaction to a driving licence racket exposed by Times of Malta.
The racket, through which many candidates were fast-tracked or helped to get a driving licence, led straight to former Transport Minister Ian Borg and his trusted workers.
WhatsApp chats obtained by Times of Malta show Borg, his canvasser Jesmond Zammit, and his ministry personnel regularly piled pressure on Transport Malta’s director of licensing Clint Mansueto to "help" candidates at different stages of the licensing process.
Nationalist Party transport spokesman Adrian Delia said it was disgraceful that the country was exposed to another scandal in the space of a few weeks, which reflects the "inequality" between people, this time even posing a danger to people on the streets
The revelations showed the government did not care for people’s safety on the roads, as long as it gained votes, the former PN leader said in a statement.
Delia asked what was keeping Robert Abela from forcing Borg to shoulder some form of political responsibility.
The Times of Malta revelations also noted that Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà had the chat logs of the scandal but failed to take action, he said.
For Abela, people are just votes, Delia said.
In a statement, ADPD called for the immediate resignation of Borg, saying his position was compromised and not acceptable.
"The country needs ministers it can trust, who were not involved in criminal practices of vote buying to benefit friends and incompetent people," the Green Party said in a statement.
This racket, it said, was another attack on the country’s democracy, and another scandal in a chain of scandals.
ADPD asked the police commissioner to explain why he had not acted on the evidence produced by the chats, accusing the police of yet again rendering themselves "a shield to the dirt" in Robert Abela’s cabinet.
In a social media post, ADPD chairperson Sandra Gauci said the country needs be rebooted to "start from scratch".
'A criminal government'
Robert Aquilina, president of civil society group Repubblika, said the country is being managed by a criminal government.
"It is a government that consciously wants abuse, deceit and corruption."
He asked Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà if he intends to arrest and interrogate Ian Borg on Sunday.
In a statement, Repubblika said the story exposes in detail how a bureaucratic system that supposedly grants a driving license to competent people has been corrupted to buy votes and award those loyal to the government.
Like every other scandal of systematic corruption, the police acted against a small number of people who had limited participation and closed their eyes to the involvement of a minister and officials from among their staff.
Repubblika said it was worrying to see Borg actually justifying his involvement in the scheme, by bragging that his doors are always open to those desiring favours.
It was clear there was no political will to remove corruption, Repubblika said, underlining the need for Malta to become a clean republic.
The political class should lead by example and close doors to those seeking to break the rules.
Urges commissioner to investigate
MEP candidate Arnold Cassola called on the Standards Commissioner to investigate Borg's role in the racket.
The minister, he said, had put the lives of thousands of drivers and pedestrians at risk by recommending and ordering his subordinates to pass from driving exams candidates who were not capable of doing so without his intervention.
This was also a rampant abuse of power.
The minister was still not transparent with the public and was refusing to explain his role in the racket.
"Our country’s reputation is threatened. We cannot allow the country’s foreign policy to be led by such a corrupt person," Cassola said.
Civil society group Occupy Justice described the scandal as an example of "more corruption. vote buying, impunity."
"How can people remain quiet in the face of all this filth," it said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.