It’s official: Malta is now more corrupt than Italy

The mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, is on the verge of resigning following the arrest yesterday of her chief of staff, Raffaele Marra, in a corruption probe involving a building contractor.

The corrupt transactions took place three years ago, when Raggi was not even mayor and Marra worked for another administration. The Carabinieri searched his office at city hall yesterday, causing a great deal of embarrassment to Raggi’s 5-star Movement, which rushed to distance itself from her.

Earlier this week, Raggi let go her chief environment officer after she was put under investigation for unlawful waste treatment when she worked for a city waste disposal company.

The Carabinieri say that Marra acquired a flat from the real-estate developer Sergio Scarpellini, who is being investigated for corrupting officials to gain advantages for his business.

Compare and contrast this case with Malta’s ongoing scandal involving the Education Minister, the permanent secretary in his ministry, and his vote-canvasser of more than two decades, who he gave a big budget to play with in the state schools maintenance and building organisation.

Evarist Bartolo hasn’t resigned and there is no pressure on him to do so, from whatever quarter. His corrupt official has not been fired, nor has he resigned (he has “suspended himself” – as if that means anything unless a rope and harness are involved). And the police are supposed to be investigating – supposed being the operative word – only because the organisation’s former CEO formally handed them a load of documentation indicating the corruption, and the whole thing went under a media spotlight, or what passes for one in Malta.

Virginia Raggi