It will take more than the well-tested strategy of keeping up appearances for this government to hide the skeletons that have been accumulating in its closet over the years it has been in power. While the Prime Minister and his merry men urge us to celebrate the golden age, which for the umpteenth time they are promising will soon dawn for us, our families are more interested in knowing how their lives are being affected by the incompetence and rot that plague this administration.
In the last few months we have learnt a thing or two about three skeletons that must be haunting the Nationalist administration. What is most interesting is that people who have no particular axe to grind against this government have made the details about these skeletons public. Let us just remind ourselves of three skeletons Dr Gonzi is trying to hide from us.
The Maltacom saga is perhaps the one case of public mismanagement and incompetence where the effect on taxpayers’ money can be calculated most accurately. A plot of land in Qawra, estimated to cost anything from Lm10 to Lm15 million at today’s market prices, should have been transferred from Maltacom back to our Lands Department following the sale of our telecommunications company to Tecom.
However, this never happened. One asks why this did not happen. Who is responsible to safeguard the public interest – if not the government of the day? What is behind the fact that no explanation has been forthcoming in Parliament to explain this failure in a transparent manner? One has to emphasise the fact that as long as this land remains within the assets of Maltacom, it means a kickback of over Lm10 million to the new majority private shareholders. Is there a motive lying behind such an administrative error? In the typical arrogant style that characterises the final phases of this government, the Minister concerned refused the offer of the Labour Party to address this issue in Parliament and reverted to the Law Courts to sort out the mess they got us into. If the government thinks that by going to the courts it has satisfied public opinion that this was not a case of bad management of public assets, then it must really be living in cuckoo land.
Another skeleton that is raring to come out into the open from the darkness of the closet where it has been laid to rest for quite a few years relates to the Minister of Transport’s frustration about his inability to control the rot that had set in the authority which regulated public transport. Extracts from confidential conversations which were made public, presumably with the assistance of someone who enjoyed the Minister’s trust at the time, reveal how impotent even the Minister had become to guarantee the minimum level of good management in the transport authority. Again the minister has given no explanation in Parliament and the Prime Minister is keeping mum on the whole issue.
Does this come as a surprise to the silent majority of our families who from the privacy of their homes reflect on how this country is being run? Of course not. Is this a case of political hangers-on populating the corridors of power seeking to exploit every opportunity for personal gain that presents itself? When political loyalty becomes the main criterion for entrusting people with even a small measure of authority, then it is no wonder that rot sets in and the trust that people should have in our public administrators is undermined.
Finally, we have the repeated declarations of the former president of the Nationalist Party who has taken the extraordinary step of going public about his concern on how the building of the new hospital has been mismanaged. The two simple examples that he gave to illustrate his concern are so clear and logical that no one can doubt the justification of such claims.
Yes, according to Dr Portelli, the government has built mortuary facilities that can cater for 6,000 autopsies every year, when the present need is for just 300. Who came out with such a wasteful idea, and who has gained from all this? What we do know, of course, is that the taxpayer has to pay for such extravagance. The people definitely demand a credible explanation for such waste especially since they have been so heavily burdened by the increased taxation over the last four years
The same disarming logic is evident in the question Dr Portelli asked: Why did we have to build two places of worship in our new hospital? Would God have been offended if those who believe in him were asked to congregate in just one place if they wanted to communicate with him and save the Maltese taxpayer some money?
Only a change in government can put an end to this rot and lack of transparency. The Nationalists will keep repeating the mantra that Labour is not proposing anything different from them. But they could not be more mistaken, because a Labour government promises to put an end to this rot that is the result of arrogance and total insensitivity resulting from overstaying in power for far too long.
Dr Mangion is deputy leader of the Opposition.
cmangion@keyworld