Not that kind of leader

Prime Minister Robert Abela approved the forced resignation of Sandra Zammit, a high-ranking police officer, for allegedly stealing a pair of boots worth €164 – an accusation she vehemently denies.

That same Abela vociferously defended the reinstatement of Kurt Buhagiar, the man accused of the involuntary homicide of Jean Paul Sofia.

It turns out, in Abela’s perverted judgement, you’re better off killing a 20-year-old than misappropriating a pair of boots.

In January, Zammit, a police superintendent was immediately suspended after she was accused of stealing a pair of boots.  Zammit was the quartermaster.  She’s the one who provides members of the police force with their uniforms, boots and other equipment.  The bizarre story arose after the police force procured inferior quality boots with defective soles, causing officers to slip and fall – not what you want when you’re chasing criminals.

As quartermaster, Zammit was responsible for replacing those defective boots with a new pair for officers affected.  She was one of those who got defective boots.

An internal circular was issued to all members of the police force instructing them to go to the quartermaster with their faulty boots to replace them with a new brand of better quality. Zammit replaced her own faulty boots with new ones but failed to register the exchange.  When this was picked up, she was accused of theft and immediately suspended.

“I still cannot understand how I was accused of theft”, the distraught superintendent said.

Despite her protestations of innocence, the police force kept insisting she had stolen the boots. Zammit was not prosecuted.  The Attorney General found there was no criminal case against her.  Yet she was dragged before the police disciplinary board, which ruled she should be demoted in rank or seniority or given alternative duties.

The case didn’t stop there.  She was then hauled before the Public Service Commission (PSC).  In an absurd decision, the PSC decided that Zammit merited even harsher punishment.  They determined she should be forced to resign from the police force or else face dismissal.

In a desperate attempt to save her job and reputation, she went to court requesting a prohibitory injunction against the PSC.  But by then, the Public Service Commission had issued its brutal summary judgment.  The court ruled that since the PSC had already decided on the case, it was too late and there was little it could do.

Meanwhile, Kurt Buhagiar, who faces charges of involuntary homicide of Jean Paul Sofia, was reinstated as driver to the Lands Authority CEO Robert Vella. Buhagiar is not only Vella’s driver;  he’s also his right-hand man.

Prior to being recruited to the Lands Authority, Buhagiar spent one year incarcerated at Ragusa prison after he was caught red-handed by Italian police trafficking people between Libya, Malta and Sicily.

Despite his criminal record, Buhagiar was given his job, and, soon after, through his company Allplus Ltd, he was given government land to build a timber factory in Kordin despite the fact that the company had barely been set up and had only received €45,000 worth of contracts.  Yet Buhagiar and his business partner started building a five-storey building with just €112,000.

The public inquiry that Abela so fiercely resisted revealed that Buhagiar was responsible for a litany of failures, most notably negligence leading to Sofia’s death and injury to other workers on the site.

Court-appointed experts noted that the “poorly-led” and “amateur” project was flawed from the very start. Buhagiar, and his business partner Matthew Schembri, tasked carpenters employed with their company to construct the Kordin factory.  Those carpenters had little to no training in construction using local materials, such that “there was nobody skilled who could properly understand what they were doing” at the Kordin site.

Buhagiar failed to notify authorities, including the OHSA, of the commencement of the works as he was obliged to do.  He didn’t appoint a licensed builder to lead the works, instead taking the lead himself, despite not holding a builder’s licence.  The inquiry concluded Buhagiar should face charges over his alleged negligence leading to Sofia’s death.

After Abela’s terrible mishandling of the Sofia inquiry demands, Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi was determined not to reinstate Buhagiar.  He gave clear instructions to Lands CEO Robert Vella that Buhagiar should not be allowed back.  Yet Vella ignored his own Minister.

Zrinzo Azzopardi publicly declared that “I never gave consent or approved this decision”. He knew this was wrong and had the moral courage to express his disgust.  He went to the prime minister demanding that Lands be removed from his portfolio.  That triggered a reshuffle in which Zrinzo Azzopardi was moved to the EU Funds portfolio. Lands was conveniently passed on to the obsequious Owen Bonnici.

As news leaked out about Buhagiar’s reinstatement, the whole nation was enraged.  More than anybody else, Sofia’s mother, Isabelle Bonnici, was livid.

But Abela never learns.  Completely failing to pick up the sentiment of public outrage, instead of keeping quiet, he vociferously defended Buhagiar’s reinstatement.  “He’s doing the job he’s paid to do,” Abela said.

The Prime Minister kept digging:  “The courts did not recommend Buhagiar’s dismissal”.  Well, the courts didn’t recommend Sandra Zammit’s forced resignation, but that’s exactly the decision Abela approved – for “stealing” a pair of boots.

Bonnici backed him up.  “This is a purely administrative decision… the Authority weighed all the facts”.

Momentum put it best – Abela’s defence of Buhagiar’s reinstatement was “morally corrupt”.  They accused Abela of being “just tone-deaf”. Abela, they said, “spits in the face of the inquiry findings”, “mocks the memory of Jean Paul Sofia and continues to betray his mother who had to fight tooth and nail for a public inquiry that should have been automatic”.

“Malta deserves leaders who understand the weight of public office… and who value life over political convenience”, Momentum added. Robert Abela is not that kind of leader.