In a statement released by the DOI, the government said it had made it clear that the budget cutting exercise was part of the plan to cut the budget deficit. The government said it believed that the deficit was a national problem and therefore everyone had to pull their weight to bring it under control.

The DOI said that to alleviate the burden, the budget cuts will be made from money that was due to be spent in connection with egovernment. Also, each council would have the remaining balance removed which would equal somewhere in the region of a 2.4 per cent cut.

The DOI said the comments made by Dr Cardona were even more out of place considering the way in which the MLP government treated the local councils in the 1996-98 period.

In the 1997/98 financial year, said the DOI, government reduced the council budget by Lm1 million and a further Lm400,000 the next year to a total figure of Lm5.8 million. The PN government had allocated Lm10.15 million, even after the cuts had been made.

The DOI said that now local councils even have additional income from by-law enforcement, licences and permits. This, said the DOI, was down to government’s strategy of not making councils dependent on the state. The government also allocated 151 former drydocks workers to local councils and from 1999 onwards, about 100 civil service workers to councils, at no expense to the relative local government.

The DOI said that government did not need to defend itself on matters relating to the local councils because the facts speak for themselves.