Malta’s ID card racket stirs political strife

Malta’s illegal identity card scandal, linked to government agency Identità, continues to stir political uproar in the country.

The oppositional Nationalist Party (PN), one of the two major political parties in Malta, has accused the Labour Party-led government of playing down the scale of the ID racket which allowed ineligible individuals to obtain Maltese IDs in return for bribes.

The response came after a court heard last week that the police had only uncovered seven fake IDs. Identità, the agency responsible for identity documents and residency permits, was initially accused of issuing 18,000 fake ID cards. The accusations were brought by government critic and former member of the Nationalist Party Jason Azzopardi and upheld by the court in August last year.

Last week’s court hearing presented evidence against Identità’s employee Maria Rita Spiteri and an accomplice called Bernard Attard. The duo is facing charges of money laundering, human trafficking, identity theft and fraud and forgery, according to Malta Today.

During the hearing, Identità’s Chief Head of Compliance Claudio Spiteri claimed that the agency only had 16 files related to the case.

“I have never heard of these thousands of ID cards being mentioned,” says Spiteri.

The National Party, however, is rejecting these figures and accusing the government of attempting to deceive the public. The measures implemented by Identità to prevent fake ID cards contradict the government’s claims that only a few documents have been falsified, it said last Friday.

Since the scandal broke out, Identità has issued a form allowing individuals to de-register someone who has never resided at their address. The corruption scheme allegedly allowed foreign nationals to give a false address and receive correspondence from Identità and other government agencies. The agency also introduced stricter rules for registering new rental contracts and amended the process for changing addresses on ID cards.

“If all that was discovered were irregularities in a small number of identity cards, then why did Identità implement all these measures?” says National Party spokesperson Darren Carabott.

The opposition also repeated accusations that Prime Minister Robert Abela’s government has lost control over security and people entering Malta. The Labor Party hit back arguing that the assertions were populist and opportunist.

The National Party’s stance on the ID card racket has found approval among other political options, including Momentum Party leader Arnold Cassola.

“I myself gave the Inquiring magistrate 120 ID cards with false addresses of the employees of the PL donor Joseph Portelli and his partner Dirjanu, Mark Agius,” Cassola wrote on Facebook last week.

Meanwhile, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Labour Party Agius Saliba has submitted a letter to the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) arguing that the evidence in the ID card scandal points to “isolated cases, not systemic abuse.” In October, Aguius requested the European Commission undertake a technical assessment of Identità’s practices.

Article Topics

Identità  |  identity document  |  Malta  |  Malta ID card fraud