Any feel-good factor that the government intended to create with an election-type of budget it presented on Monday has already evaporated.

It has been an extremely bad week for the government.

We have not arrived at a stage similar to when Eddie Fenech Adami chose to dedicate his reply to the Labour government's budget not to speak about the measures that had been listed in the financial exercise, but to address the dramatic situation which was unfolding at the time following the murder of Raymond Caruana in 1986.

But Simon Busuttil would do well to deal with the issues below on Monday, even though they do not necessarily have to do with the budget.

Few of the ministers have been spared blushes these past few days.

In public transport under Joe Mizzi, a court of law has stopped the government from signing a contract following legal action taken by a consortium that is claiming irregularities in the discussions taking place with the Spanish company the government has chosen to be the bus service provider as from January.

Helena Dalli has been embroiled in a murky situation following illegal development taking place in a property in Zejtun.

Konrad Mizzi continues to give no clue on the power station failure and we are still in the dark on the greatest promise made by the Labour Party when in Opposition, that of a new energy plant which was supposed to be ready by March and which, as things stand now, will probably not even start to be built by that time.

Chris Cardona was in the news for ordering the dissolution of the casino licence technical committee, an issue about which we will be hearing more in the near future as the situation develops in the courts of law.

Edward Scicluna himself, apart from breaking the (world?) record of budget speeches, has been accused by the Nationalist Party of criticising the National Statistics Office, an accusation that had been levelled at the minister on other occasions in the past.

Evarist Bartolo, to remain within the budget scenario, is now backtracking after it was revealed that the government is planning to stagger school opening hours, a proposal that came out of the blue and which is being vehemently attacked by the Malta Union of Teachers.

Anton Refalo was reprimanded by the same Bartolo, a colleague on the same side of the House of Representatives, for not answering about his travels abroad as minister.

And, the cherry on the cake, Manuel Mallia's driver was involved in a shooting incident with a British national following a car chase.

Where is the Prime Minister in all this?

As the chief of his Cabinet, he is responsible for what his ministers are doing and yet, at least in public, he has failed to address a situation which is clearly running out of his control.

His reaction to the shooting incident came nearly a day after it happened, and only when public opinion had turned so much against the government that he had to seemingly do some damage limitation. Yet, even here, expressing anger and disgust is not enough.

Joseph Muscat's favourite word prior to the election was arrogance, a word he used very often to describe what Nationalist ministers were doing.

This boomerang is now flying straight back at the Prime Minister, as he clearly cannot control his ministers.

And it's not only arrogance that they are guilty of.