Fifty days have passed since Malta’s entire Cabinet was placed under a Magisterial inquiry over misuse of public funds and resources on Facebook.

The inquiry was triggered by a Standards Commissioner report which found “widespread” misuse of public resources by ministers and parliamentary secretaries.

The report was drafted following a Lovin Malta complaint about ministers using public funds and resources to boost their own Facebook pages instead of setting up official ministry pages.

Incomplete figures made public some years ago showed that at least €1.2 million were spent by ministries on social media over a 55-month period, despite most ministries not having official Facebook pages.

According to Malta’s Criminal Code, any public officer or servant who for his own private gain “misapplies or purloins any money entrusted to him by the virtue of his office” shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment of between two or six years and to a perpetual general interdiction.

Back on 10th June, the police confirmed that a magisterial inquiry was underway by Magistrate Doreen Clarke. No update has been given since then.

By comparison, a Magisterial inquiry into allegations that the Armed Forces of Malta may have been responsible for migrant deaths at sea took under 40 days to be concluded, clearing the government of any wrongdoing.

Since the inquiry was launched, Lovin Malta has continued to investigate the matter, making several Freedom Of Information requests to each ministry to declare how they spent money on social media. Each of the ministries, including the Office of the Prime Minister, denied the FOI requests, claiming no such records were kept. This, despite the fact that such records are kept by Facebook and accessible to the account holders.

The government has also refused to publish the Social Media Code which the Cabinet is meant to be following, claiming this is a secret Cabinet document.

Meanwhile, more than 4,300 people have signed a petition for ministers to refund money that was misused.

Have you signed the petition yet?