How can Opposition MPs fight the fraud of citizenship applicants using fictitious addresses when they are doing the same themselves

Jean Pierre and Kristy Debono, a married couple each with a seat in parliament on the Opposition benches – and he has been assistant secretary-general of the Nationalist Party for the last nine years – are registered to two separate addresses on the electoral roll.

He is registered to “L-Irdoss, Fl 2, Triq l-Isqof Ambrog Buttigieg, Haz-Zebbug” and she is registered to “121, L-Ankra Triq Santa Margerita, San Gwann” (so that she can vote for herself).

But that is not all. At the address to which Mrs Debono is registered but where she does not live, there are another seven people registered, with different surnames, including her sister, Mandy Farrugia, and her mother, Miriam Spiteri, presumably so that they can all vote for Mrs Debono too.

129194M Sammut Andrew Bernard 121, L-Ankra Triq Santa Margerita, San Gwann
347784M Farrugia Mandy 121, L-Ankra Triq Santa Margerita, San Gwann
137775M Vassallo Gordon 121, L-Ankra Triq Santa Margerita, San Gwann
219054M Spiteri Miriam 121, L-Ankra Triq Santa Margerita, San Gwann
387603L Borg Daniel Patrick 121, L-Ankra Triq Santa Margerita, San Gwann
404195M Sammut Daniel-John 121, L-Ankra Triq Santa Margerita, San Gwann
544891M Sammut Karl Vince 121, L-Ankra Triq Santa Margerita, San Gwann
77982M Debono Kristy 121, L-Ankra Triq Santa Margerita, San Gwann

How can Kristy and Jean Pierre Debono fight the government on the practice of citizenship applicants using fictitious addresses, or several applicants being falsely registered to the same address, when they are doing the same thing?

And how can the Nationalist Party, its supporters and the general public trust Jean Pierre Debono not to fiddle to his own advantage the records and data he administers as assistant secretary-general, when he and his wife fiddle their own addresses for electoral purposes?

Never mind. Should they suddenly wish to divorce for whatever reason, they needn’t wait the statutory four years from date of separation. They can use their electoral roll records to prove to the divorce court that they have been separated for a few years already.

Cheating the system is a way of life for these people. Kristy Debono got herself put on the payroll at the Malta Gaming Authority when the Nationalists were in government. Once she was elected to parliament in 2013, she stopped going in to the office, carried on collecting her pay cheque, her bosses there do nothing about it and MPs on the government benches say nothing about it in parliament.

She spends her time knocking on doors canvassing for herself and her husband, funded by the taxpayer, to the fury and irritation of other employees in the office who are not politically protected.

Compromised to the hilt, this leaves her unable to challenge corrupt appointments made currently at the Gaming Authority and elsewhere, or even investigate – in her Opposition role – the activities of the Gaming Authority and the people who run it.

Worse still, she has compromised the entire Opposition, who can’t do that either – because the minute anybody on the Opposition benches opens his or her mouth about people being paid but not turning up for work, they’ll have Kristy Debono flung at them by the government MPs.

And how can any MP be taken seriously on the matter of credibility, integrity, transparency and respect for taxpayer funds if he or she is paid by the state but given special treatment and not required to turn up for work? And Kristy Debono is not the only one.

Clyde Puli and David Agius were both given corrupt appointments on the state payroll, the first at the Foundation for Medical Services and the second at the Freeport. They don’t report for work either, but still collect their pay-cheque – and nobody says anything about it.

And by some amazing coincidence, these three state payroll cheats, who have been defrauding the taxpayer all these years, are Adrian Delia’s closest collaborators in the drive to put him in charge of the Nationalist Party, so that they can all cheat the system some more.