Labour leader Alfred Sant declared yesterday that Richard Muscat, the former managing director of the Voice of the Mediterranean, is guilty of gross irresponsibility and must pay for his actions. Labour will not let this case die down.

In a press conference held in front of the VoM office in Valley Road, Birkirkara, Dr Sant said the Public Accounts Hearings have shown that Mr Muscat committed a long series of irregularities and he must be held accountable for them.

Dr Sant claimed that the government, instead of seeing that what was wrong be put right, has defended Mr Muscat to the hilt, as friends of friends do to each other.

Despite the defects or non-defects in the Auditor General’s investigation, what has emerged is a series of facts that have shocked and scandalised the country, Dr Sant said.

He then listed some of the charges against Mr Muscat beginning with what Dr Sant called a xalata in the Mediterranean, at a time when the station’s finances were weak he participated in the Venice Film Festival and payments were made without supporting documentation.

These included expenses for travel, which were paid out without a supporting invoice and the way these trips were made through the PN travel agency Eurotours. Also, the part-time accountant received (full time) terminal benefits.

The radio station gave a direct order to an IT company whose head was friend of both Mr Muscat and his son.

This is now shocking not just Labour supporters, Dr Sant claimed, but also government supporters. It was for this reason that the Labour MPs on the PAC proposed the holding of a magisterial inquiry to establish the civil, administrative and criminal responsibilities in the case.

It is scandalous that the government side insisted that the one to be investigated should be the Auditor General. This, he added, is anti-constitutional, as the article in the Constitution about the Auditor General states quite clearly that his office is subject to no authority.

Mr Muscat is not fit to be an ambassador and if he does not resign of his own accord, a Labour government will see that he does. Other people who must shoulder responsibility for what went on at VoM include Gaetan Naudi, former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Richard Mifsud. Others like Alfred Zarb and Mannie Spiteri have emerged with honours as they had warned that things were not being done right at VoM.