GUEST POST/ A blind man in the dark can see the writing on the wall here

Sent in by Peter Mallia:

1. Avoiding tax is wrong of any member of parliament. Although not illegal, it is immoral and contrary to every principle of transparent and exemplary governance. That the PM stands up for and defends these actions is all the more worrying.

2. You do not open or buy a shell company in Panama for cost-effectiveness. Cyprus, Delaware in the US and many other jurisdictions are very much more cost-effective. The only reason for having a company in Panama is for opacity and wanting to hide assets and their provenance. Should I, as a businessman, want to create vehicles of tax optimisation and “family planning”, the last place to go to is Panama.

It’s waving a red flag to the tax authorities in every country I do business in. I would have all my family and friends audited and probably even the police and Interpol on my back. Maybe Konrad Mizzi’s financial adviser would like to explain his business acumen in suggesting to Mr Mizzi this jurisdiction for tax optimisation.

3. A lesser shade of suspicion would have been thrown had Mr Mizzi’s multi-billion contracts been signed with a government and companies of solid and good repute. Having signed these contracts with some of the most corrupt dictatorships in the world does not shed a good light.

4. These contracts have not been published despite the Freedom of Information Act and numerous requests by the Opposition and the press.

No journalists or civil servants were allowed to accompany the Prime Minister’s delegation of four to Baku during these negotiations. Once again, should I have wanted to be an exemplar of transparency I would have made sure that senior public officers (not political appointees) are present during these sensitive negotiations.

5. It now seems that at least half of the delegation that has negotiated this secret contract have set up the same structure at the same time, using the same consultant.

A blind man in the dark can see the writing on the wall.

Joseph Muscat with Ilham Aliyev, ruler of Azerbaijan, in December 2014