At the end of last week, the Malta Labour Party expressed what it termed to be “doubts” over the veracity of revisions made by the National Statistics Office on economic figures published over the years.

This is a serious issue which needs to be addressed.

The NSO is an important structure in the country’s set-up, as it is responsible for all official figures, starting from the most important statistics such as those relating to the economy to other less crucial but nonetheless interesting matters such as the number of band clubs, the number of SMSs sent and the number of people who are members of the various associations on the islands.

The NSO falls directly under the responsibility of Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s office and therefore he must also take full cognisance of what such an important department is going through at the moment because of the changes to figures that have been made.

The MLP has commissioned a technical report on these changes and published it last week during a press conference given by its deputy leader for parliamentary affairs, Charles Mangion. It certainly makes interesting reading and raises some valid, and not so valid, hypotheses. But it is lacking one thing – an author.

It is not the first time that the MLP has commissioned a report which it will not attribute to anyone, citing the reasons for doing so as being to protect the people who compiled them. Interesting as Labour’s report is, its credibility is diminished because of this reason.

And this is where it all goes a bit pear-shaped.

The MLP is attacking the NSO’s credibility, albeit in the national interest, it claims. We would certainly hope that this is the case and it not just a chance to damage the process to adopt Europe’s single currency, the euro, which will be replacing the lira as from next year if all pre-set targets are met.

We pose this question however – how can a political party attack an institution’s trustworthiness when its own justification of its criticism inherently lacks credibility because it is made by means of an anonymous report?

It is the MLP’s duty to act as a watchdog of the government’s behaviour and the party does well in bringing to the fore issues that need to be made public in the so-called national interest. As such, the party has always been at the forefront in criticising the government where it thought it was doing wrong.

Political pressure from the opposition keeps the government on its toes in that it has to be very careful in what it does once its actions will be scrutinised by one and all, and in particular, by the party on the other side of the fence.

But surely, the MLP must recognise the fact that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. One cannot demand accountability and transparency and attack an institution’s credibility and then feel it is not right to publish the name of the authors of document on which its criticism is based.

Malta is on the fragile path to adopting the euro – which if done properly will result in more benefits for the country. The MLP has already said that the process leading to the adoption of the euro is not a political issue, but turning this particular matter into a partisan issue will not help.

At the same time however, the Prime Minister must look deeply into the MLP’s claims. As said before, he is the man responsible for the NSO.

The NSO’s accountability is a direct reflection of the credibility of the country and the issue surrounding the NSO needs to be put to rest as quickly as

possible.

With 2007 supposedly being the year for Malta to hit top gear, we must ensure that we have an atmosphere which is conducive to the development of the country as a whole.