“First it was my cousins, now it is my own son,” Dr Gonzi told the monthly media briefing.

He was referring to a story carried on One News last Thursday, which claimed that Dr Gonzi’s elder son, David, had been given a translation job by the government and that the name of his company figures among the beneficiaries of government’s contracts before the company itself was established.

This detail emerged from a parliamentary reply given by Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg. In a statement issued on Friday, but unreported by any newspaper yesterday, except for Super One on Friday, it was claimed this was a mix-up due “to administrative reasons”. In a statement, Dr Gonzi Jr denied that any irregularity had taken place and said that his translation job was obtained legitimately.

Questioned about this clarification at yesterday’s press conference the Prime Minister said that in 2001, when the translation contract began, his son was a fourth-year student. He graduated in 2002 and spent 2003 in the UK doing his Masters.

At the beginning of this year he joined a group of lawyers who had been doing translation work for the government, like so many other lawyers of all hues and colours.

Before they targeted his son, Dr Gonzi added, they had targeted his cousins.

Paul Camilleri, the architect, had held the highest post for at the Foundation for Medical Services for four years until the Opposition found out he was his (Dr Gonzi’s) cousin. After being targeted by Dr Sant, he had calls from members of the Opposition telling him “Sorry”.

His brother, Richard, is one of the ablest lawyers in Malta.

It all began when he (Dr Gonzi) started to put pressure on Skanska. “What is the Opposition’s agenda?” he asked. “There is a limit to everything. However this will not stop the government or myself from doing our duty.”

Dr Gonzi proceeded to shed more light on the whole Mater Dei issue with further replies and statements.

The facts are as follows: in 1998 and 1999 the government wanted to see its way about the building of the new hospital that had begun in 1995 as a specialised small hospital which the Labour government subsequently decided to enlarge to become a general hospital by ordering the addition of two other storeys, only one of which was accepted by the Planning Authority.

The 1999 government commissioned Skanska itself to study the way forward. The study cost the government some Lm1.9 million.

Skanska came up with a Projected Final Cost of Lm87 million which excluded such things as medical equipment, IT, management fees and so on but which included both construction and finishing as well as landscaping and building the roads.

However, ever since that day, as work resumed, Skanska has been coming up with more and more cost over-runs and this has greatly inflated the final bill.

FMS has long been battling against these cost over-runs and questioning each one of them. Minister John Dalli had also spearheaded an attempt to unravel the intricate and complicated issues.

As soon as he became Prime Minister, Dr Gonzi added, he decided to tackle this issue himself. “I want to draw a line,” he said, “so that the final cost becomes clear as also the date when the whole hospital is ready.”

Contrary to what the Labour Party is saying, it made sense to have representatives of FMS, such as Mr Camilleri, on board the monitoring team as they would know what was what.

The aim of the exercise was to find out how the cost over-runs come had about. It is not a matter, Dr Gonzi said, of Skanska billing government for something that is not there. The complicated ongoing exercise aims to find out who is responsible for each and every cost over-run. If the cost over-run happened because the government ordered something extra, then the government will pay up, but if there is no proof the cost over-run was due to the government, it will not pay.

For instance, Dr Gonzi added, the roads surrounding the new hospital, including internal roads, were said to cost Lm1.9 million, of which Lm270,000 would be the cost of the internal roads. But the final bill for the internal roads alone came to Lm1.6 million. There was no change in the plans, so how had this cost over-run come about?

Following a presentation to Cabinet last Monday, the government is now standing by its position: it wants an explanation for each cost over-run and it also wants a definite date for the completion of the contract.

At this point, the government has several options:

· It can terminate the contract and take over the management;

· It can take the case to court;

· Or it can refer the case to arbitration.

For the time being, government is allowing Skanska to make its own contacts. If there is no development in the coming days, Dr Gonzi added, he will call Skanska’s top people to a meeting.

The decision regarding the hospital’s future must be taken before the end of the year.

Government is taking the same line with all the various capital projects, including the ones at Cirkewwa and Mgarr. It will be even more stringent on the forthcoming grand projects.

Dr Gonzi was told by this paper that the PN administration has a track record of allowing various cost over-runs, both at the airport and at the Delimara Power Station. He admitted this was wrong and said the government must be stricter in the future.

Earlier Dr Gonzi had spoken about his foreign policy meetings last week, with the Romanian president, then his visit to Libya and his meeting with the future head of the European Commission.

In Libya he had a number of meetings with the Libyan Prime Minister especially as regards controlling the illegal immigrant flood to Malta and easing the issuing of visas to people from Malta.

As regards his meeting with Muammar Gaddafi, Dr Gonzi said the talks were cordial and good and Mr Gaddafi wished Malta well on its accession into the EU.

Dr Gonzi also spoke about the privatisation of the Freeport, the agreement regarding public transport and expressed his worries about the increasing price of

oil and its possible effects on the Maltese economy.

He was also asked about Dar Malta and whether the Maltese government would have to pay VAT if it sub-let four storeys of this big building. This is being looked into, Dr Gonzi said but if MTA and Air Malta had to move out of Malta House in London for poll tax reasons, there is nothing to stop the government from letting out these offices to non-Maltese.

Finally, Dr Gonzi informed the media that although the government has been pressing for Malta’s sixth seat at the European Parliament, a number of member States were against giving this seat to Malta after the Constitution is approved, instead of giving Malta the extra seat at the next European Parliament elections.