Leading by example: netting the minnows while the sharks roam free

The Finance Ministry has issued a statement saying that an employee of the Inland Revenue Department is out on forced leave of absence from work because his wife is named in the Panama Papers – presumably, though this is not clear in the statement, as the ultimate beneficial owner of an offshore company.

The statement says that the company seems to have been set up before their marriage, but “the Commissioner for Revenue has taken precautionary measures until all necessary investigations are concluded”.

The important point here is that the man in question is an Inland Revenue Department employee, which makes the Commissioner for Revenue his boss and able to suspend him.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has done literally nothing about the actions of his special minister and his chief of staff, which are so much worse.

The Finance Minister did the right thing in briefing the public about this, but in doing so he has only highlighted the extremely bad behaviour of his boss in the cabinet.