The Nationalist Party (PN) said Wednesday that Byron Camilleri’s position as Minister of the Interior is no longer tenable after a string of scandals emerging from his portfolio.
Added to this, he was absent from the spotlight, as he failed to show the people that these situations are under control, the PN said.
During apress conference held today in front of the Ministry for Home Affairs in Valletta, the PN also expressed its full support towards the entire Police Force, and specifically, to the two police officers who were recently assaulted in Ħamrun.
Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, Darren Carabott said that several stories regarding entities under the responsibility of Byron Camilleri had emerged this summer. Amongst these, he mentioned the ongoing Identità and LESA magisterial inquiries, as well as the police corps’ lack of resources.
While the government agency Identità has been linked with allegedly issuing fraudulent identity and residence cards, another magisterial inquiry was opened this summer on LESA and an alleged penalty points racket.
“These are all issues that we have said [Minister Byron Camilleri] must carry political responsibility for,” Carabott said.
The party described how after his absent spell during this summer, in spite of the aforementioned stories developing at the time, the Minister “has reappeared, though unfortunately, he has come back without giving or showing political will, without assuring his people and giving them peace of mind that he knows what he’s doing as Interior Minister, and without showing that this government has a vision.”
Carabott said that despite carrying out two interviews with local newsrooms, Minister Camilleri’s responses were not only rehearsed, but lacked transparency on what action is to be taken to provide the police corps with more resources or what he has done regarding the Identità and LESA scandals.
Describing the ramifications of the Identità allegations, the party officials described how a number of people have entered the Maltese islands registered under the addresses of others, and that as a result of this scandal, people are receiving official personal documents, such as government documents, cheques, tax applications, etc., on someone else’s name who doesn’t actually live with them.
He also pointed out that during his interviews with local journalists, Camilleri stated that Identità filed a police report as soon as it got to know about the addresses scandal. Thus, Carabott questioned if the police have known about this “for all these years” without taking action. He also criticised Camilleri for not being transparent about the state agency suspending one of its officials months ago.
Claudette Buttigieg, the party’s Shadow Minister for public administration, also criticised the Minister for his “disappearance” in summer, before then providing “rehearsed responses to journalists like nothing is wrong.”
“He had two opportunities to give people peace of mind, but he did not,” Buttigieg remarked.
Carabott commented that Camilleri has the obligation as a Minister to provide the Maltese population with peace of mind that everything going on under his portfolio is under control, though “Camilleri hasn’t done this and his position is no longer tenable.”
PN’s Shadow Minister for Home Affairs stated that the issues emerging in the country’s Interior portfolio “are all demonstrations of a lack of good will in politics, lack of good governance, and above all, a lack of political will and good leadership” before saying that the Nationalist Party is present because it wants this to change. Thus, he said that if elected to power, PN pledges to be a transparent government.
Carabott said that there must be a system in place to allow people to know whether or not a foreigner, or any other person, has been illegitimately registered under their address, criticising the government for doing “nothing” in this regard over months.
The pair iterated that the Nationalist Party is still compiling information relevant to the Identità scandal.
Buttigieg also stated that in her view, Minister Camilleri represents “the lack of vision, planning, governance, transparency” and the “long list” of what’s wrong with the present administration.
She appealed for the hard-working people within public administration and the public service to not feel disheartened for “not being allowed to do their jobs.” She added that “a fish stinks from its head” though that it is important for these persons to be vigilant and contact the Nationalist Party if they have any information relevant to the Identità scandal.
Carabott also made reference to a story which also emerged this summer on an alleged secret meeting that was held in Corradino prison between Yorgen Fenech, the prison’s head of strategy, and other third parties. He used this as an example to state that “all this confirms that in basically every entity under his portfolio, the higher-ups are failing to show responsibility.”
In reply, the Labour Party said that minister Camilleri and the Labour government had implemented changes and will continue to implement others to strengthen discplined corps. This will also happen through legislation that increases the punishment form people who assualt police officers.