From Mr P. Aquilina

If there ever was any doubt how the Labour Party will behave if it is voted into power in the next general election this doubt has been removed by the partisan behaviour of Labour-led councils, and unfortunately the Association of Local Councils, which also has a Labour majority in its executive committee.

For example, the Mosta local council, which the Labour Party with many untruths and political gimmicks managed to grasp for the first time last March, is being run by Labourite individuals who are neither elected councillors nor employed by the council but are merely there with the approval of the mayor and carrying out administrative work.

It will surely interest your readers to know that before all the crocodile tears and all the fuss and accusations against the Mosta ex executive secretary, the mayor signed with this particular secretary a set of council minutes which falsely declare that there was a quorum in a particular council meeting when in fact there wasn’t, and during this meeting five Labour councillors (one less than the required quorum) decided to approve payment of over Lm42,000, which is against the law.

We have asked the Director of Local Councils to take all necessary action, even criminal if required, against the mayor and the ex executive secretary for falsifying the council’s documents.

The mayor of Mosta employed his daughter-in-law as a clerk without first informing the council about her candidacy for the job as required by law.

The same goes for Marsascala where the mayor receives instructions from the local Labour Party club and especially two individuals who are always in the mayor’s office instructing him what to do and what not to do. The unfortunate thing here is that this council’s employees sometimes attend these political meetings.

Another case is Rabat were the first thing the Labour-led council did there was not to renew the employment contract of the executive secretary and the staff simply because they held different political beliefs to his. Here Labour Leader Alfred Sant has been invited by the mayor (a general election candidate himself) to take part in the launch of a local council project.

At Luqa, the present mayor was not Labour’s first choice but as he is the Labour Party deputy leader’s brother-in-law he managed to win back the mayorship although he lost many votes last March. Even in this council the executive secretary, an ex-Labour Party candidate, turns the council administrative report into a Labour propaganda machine.

Labour leader Dr Alfred Sant has been invited to address a political meeting at Pieta in the council’s office. It would be shameful if this meeting takes place.

At Sta Lucija, Dr Sant was invited as the council’s guest of honour council to unveil some work carried out by the local council.

At Hamrun, the Labour-led local council bought a number of the local festa CDs from Super One TV with public funds and without obtaining the necessary VAT receipt as required by law.

At Mtarfa the mayor ignored the council’s majority and appointed a Labourite from outside the council to sit on a selection board to choose a new executive secretary only to have the selection board’s decision turned down by the majority of the councillors, which included a Labour councillor.

At Birzebbuga, the mayor’s company called Ricky Ltd has, for a number of years, been renting a garage to the same local council at a fee of Lm900 per annum.

The cherry on the cake is the Local Councils Association, which since October 2006 has had a Labour majority and which continuously uses Labour propaganda. The height of this unethical behaviour was reached during the last mayors’ and deputy mayors’ meeting on 14 and 15 September. This meeting was turned into a partisan political activity from the beginning.

First, the date coincided with the date when the PN started its annual Independence activities at the Floriana granaries, and I am morally convinced this was done on purpose; secondly, the PN councillors were greeted with socialist propaganda literature from the European Socialists Group within the EU. This was surely out of order and the new executive secretary Jimmy Magro gave us the first taste of his political intentions and agenda for the future.

Nothing holds the Nationalists mayors and deputy mayors from organising their own association if this partisan behaviour persists.

Secondly, the chairperson, instead of presiding

neutrally, took part in political stunts and directed them to the same association guests who made interesting presentations like Lucien Stafrace from MEPA and Mr Ciantar from Waste Serv. She even went as far as to tell Minister Tonio Borg not to instigate Labour mayors. Dr Paul Chetcuti Caruana was his usual arrogant self but was by no means as near as bad as Dr Luciano Busuttil who towards the end of the meeting, insulted the Nationalists mayors by saying that “they did not lift their arm to vote for the previous motion because they stink”; this was said without the president of the association even objecting to this remark. Dr Busuttil tried to say that he was only joking but the PN mayors had no choice but to walk out of the meeting as a sign of protest.

The PN councillors were going to vote in favour of the Mosta mayor’s motion about devolution, but after the proposer resorted to insults, the PN mayors decided to abstain on his motion. This was when Dr Busuttil made his insulting remark to the PN councillors.

Pawlu Aquilina

Coordinator – PN Local Councils