The dog must have eaten their homework

The deadline for cabinet ministers to submit to parliament their declarations of assets was 31 March – as spelled out in the code of ethics for members of the cabinet.

That was more than three weeks ago and there is no sign of anything happening. Last year, they submitted their declarations on 24 June. In 2013, they submitted them even later, on 17 July.

Konrad Mizzi, Minister for Health and Energy, should of all of them have been able to meet the deadline comfortably. After all, as the Prime Minister famously (and dishonestly) told us, he had his in draft form already as early as January, and even gave it to his boss to look over. Why, he even included his secret company in Panama and his secret trust in New Zealand, and that is how the Prime Minister knew about them, he said (even though the Commissioner for Revenue and the other relevant authorities did not).

So why is Mizzi’s draft declaration still a draft declaration, visible only to the Prime Minister (perhaps he used Harry Potter ink and only the Prime Minister can read it), three weeks past deadline?

I think we can reach the obvious conclusion that the Prime Minister lied to us about that draft declaration and its contents, and he’s still lying to us about the “international audit” of the financial affairs of his colleague-in-funny-business.

I’ll go one step further in my conclusion and say that it is now obvious how the other members of the cabinet – at least, those who have nothing to hide and whose declarations are straightforward – have been prevented from submitting them to deadline so as not to show up Konrad Mizzi and other individuals with complications, like Chris Cardona and Anton Refalo.