Not even an inspector taking care of the legal aspects of the Anti-Money Laundering Unit benefited from the bonus increase.

This site is in a position to reveal that not even the inspector covering the legal office at the Anti-Money Laundering benefited from the pay increase given to the members of this section. This site is informed that this particular person had expressly asked the Police Commissioner whether he was entitled or not to the bonus that the other members in the section took. The Commissioner of Police, Angelo Gafa’, replied in the negative. The reason given was that the inspector did not perform any investigative role within this section, and only those doing investigative work were entitled to an increase. The same was true for those working at the Anti-Fraud Department within the FCID. Therefore, they were not granted any bonus.

One can imagine the current anger within the Police force against Commissioner Gafa’. As a result of the fact that those working with the Anti-Fraud Department did not receive any bonuses, two days after the agreement was revealed, two officers from the Anti-Fraud Department handed in their resignation letters. Commissioner Gafa’ asked them both for a meeting, but they refused. Instead, they told him they were outraged at the fact that they were left empty-handed after being part of the negotiations and having worked so hard for this bonus.

A few days later, commissioner Gafa’ gathered the officers forming part of the Anti-Fraud Department and told them, “kelli żewġt’ t’itfal u preferejt wieħed”. This statement further infuriated the police officers and exposed the fact that the current commissioner acted in a discriminatory way and was now differentiating between inspectors and other officers working in the Anti-Money Laundering department from those inspectors and police officers working at a district level and other branches of the force.

If one has to examine the crime report launched earlier this year, one can notice that both at district level and at the Major Crimes department, including the Drug Squad, their performance was by far better than that of the AML department. The former have arraigned more people on fraud and money laundering cases than the actual AML Department which is supposed to be investigating money laundering.