Updated 1700 – Newsportal Review
The Times of Malta leads with the story that a former senior gaming authority official and his wife have appeared in court charged with money laundering in connection to his work at the regulator. They were jointly charged with money laundering while Farrugia was separately charged with a raft of other alleged offences, including extortion, accepting bribes, fraud exceeding €5,000, misappropriation, trading in influence, disclosing confidential information and computer misuse.
Maltatoday reports that Health Minister Chris Fearne said that no monkeypox case has been registered in Malta so far . The Deputy PM insisted that there was no cause for alarm and that monkepox was not ‘another Covid’.
TVM says that ADPD The Green Party does not agree with having a regional airport on Gozo. As part of the public consultation process currently underway, ADPD spokespersons Ralph Cassar and Luke Caruana outlined eight reasons as to why they do not agree with this project. The reasons have been sent to the authorities concerned.
Newsbook reports that Home affairs minister Byron Camilleri said a group of migrants was rescued during the night but refused to say how many people were brought in to Malta. A spokesperson for the same Ministry later quantified the migrants as 31.
Updated 1300
MEPs warn ‘sense of urgency’ in ending impunity has been lost: MEPs have warned that a sense of urgency in fighting impunity in Malta has been lost, despite many “fundamental flaws” persisting. The MEPs, who form part of the Civil Liberties Committee, were in Malta for three days to take stock of the latest developments as regards the rule of law, recent judicial reforms, safety of journalists, anti-corruption measures, and citizenship and residence by investment schemes. Dutch MEP Sophie in’t Veldt said that the pace of reforms needs to be increased, adding that the delegation was shocked that the alleged mastermind behind Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder has not yet been convicted, 4 and a half years after her murder.
Being on Daphne inquiry board was ‘traumatic’ – former chief justice: Retired chief justice Joseph Said Pullicino said he found the experience of being part of a public inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia “traumatic”. “I shall only state that during the hearings my colleagues and I felt that we were in the process of performing the herculean task of cleansing the state’s Aegean stables. It was common knowledge that all was not right in the management of public affairs, but few expected the rot to have invaded so deeply and widely,” he said. Most, if not all, allegations of abuse of power, maladministration and corruption would not have happened had there not been the active or passive connivance if not complicity of public administrators, he argued.
Covid-19 Update: 90 new cases of Covid-19 were reported by health authorities on Thursday. 143 people recovered from the virus, meaning that the number of active cases currently stands at 1,556.
Morning Briefing
Pandemic resulted in €1bn revenue shortfall
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in €967 million less government revenue than projected for 2020, according to research by the National Audit Office. The largest gap resulted from tax collection as a result of diminished economic activity, with the Commissioner for Revenue collecting €2.43 billion, almost €800 million less than projected, while Customs collected €267 million, €86.5 million lower than the projection. The NAO said the country’s anticipated economic goals did not materialise due to the severe impact of the pandemic. This led to a substantial drop in all income streams during 2020, against the upward trends that were seen between 2016 and 2019. However, this figure almost pales into insignificance when considering that there were €5.7 billion in VAT and income tax deemed not collectable by the end of 2020, equivalent to almost 40% of a year’s GDP.
(Times of Malta/Maltatoday)
SME Chamber says visa-processing deadlock hits business hard as much as inflation
The Malta Chamber of SMEs lamented that Malta’s visa-processing ‘deadlock’ is as big a threat to business as inflationary pressure. In a statement on Wednesday it said that “it has been for months sounding the alarm and warning the authorities that if immediate action was not taken, Malta would end up in a human resource crisis”. It added that efforts have been slow, and the visa-processing system remains backlogged. “The pressures businesses are facing in terms of human resources is now unprecedented.”
Covid-19 Update: Health authorities reported 59 new cases on Wednesday. The number of active cases stands at 1609 after 142 persons recovered.
