With a general election widely expected in the coming months, Malta Labour Party leader Alfred Sant yesterday set the tone for an electoral campaign at the close of the MLP’s annual general conference, saying the party is confident of a victory the next time Malta takes to the polls.

Starting off on a light note by congratulating Olivia Lewis on her Malta Song for Europe win the previous night, Dr Sant soon launched a scathing attack on the government.

The party’s six policy documents, the last of which – on working conditions – was approved by the MLP’s annual general conference, will serve as important elements of the MLP’s platform for the upcoming general elections. Other documents approved at the general conference, which started last Thursday, included those dealing with the family, youth, women and the elderly.

Complementing the policy documents are the party’s vision statements on the public service, information and communications technology, the self-employed, cooperatives and farming and fishing.

Armed with such strategies, the MLP will be doubling and tripling its efforts and is “ready” for the next election and to enter Castille following the poll, Dr Sant stressed.

Among the concrete proposals Dr Sant mentioned yesterday were a pledge to halve the electricity surcharge, to invest the children’s commissioner with the powers of an ombudsman, the removal of stamp duty and a waiver of value added tax on works for the first residence purchased by young couples, a number of incentives to encourage, not force, more women into the workplace, and measures to better help the elderly through their twilight years.

The government of today, Dr Sant explained, has been riddled with incompetence – from the way it has dealt with the roads infrastructure to the port reform and from the Mater Dei hospital project to the tourism sector.

The port reform exercise carried out, according to Dr Sant, had seen the government removing the General Workers’ Union cargo handling company, only to place such work in the hands of a private monopoly, which has only resulted in an increase in port charges.

The government had also fallen through on its promise to bring down the prices of medicines by last November, but such prices have been seen on the increase.

The new Mater Dei hospital, he added, constituted one episode of wasted funds and confusion after another. The end cost of the hospital, Dr Sant commented, will amount to no less than Lm260 million, while the cost projected in 2000 had been Lm82 million. Dr Sant also observed how its construction has taken longer than it had taken the Knights of St John to build the whole of Valletta.

The project has also been ripe with scandals, Dr Sant said, while the Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi continues to insist it will open its doors to patients on 1 July, coincidentally also the prime minister’s birthday. Dr Sant took the occasion to wish Dr Gonzi a pre-emptive Happy Birthday.

The government’s left does not know even know what the right is doing with regard to the project, Dr Sant added, highlighting how finance ministry parliamentary secretary Tonio Fenech was also standing by 1 July date for the first patients. On the other hand, he pointed out how the health minister was giving a conflicting message by stating recently that the hospital will open on 1 July, but not necessarily to accept patients.

Expanding on the government’s waste of resources, Dr Sant pointed to the 318 reports commissioned by the government since it last took office. The price tag on the reports, Dr Sant adds, stood at Lm1.125 million – money wasted since the reports’ findings have not been realised into any tangible or actionable results.

Other symbols of the government’s “gross incompetence” pointed out by Dr Sant include a host of projects on which the government has overspent, which have gone wrong, or which have never materialised.

He accused the government of wasting funds when it came to projects having to be undertaken more than once. These, to list a handful, include the roundabout project at Blata-l-Bajda, which was replaced by the Park and Ride project, roads constructed under the Italian Protocol, which were meant to have served for 25 years but which are already damaged after 25 weeks, works on the Birzebbuga church parvis and those on the Mosta square.

While the list of overrun expenses goes on and on, Dr Sant said the total cost of such extra expenses amounted to Lm191 million. With families, factories hotels and shops having paid Lm26.5 million in electricity surcharges, it transpires that the Lm191 million would have served to half the Maltese people’s electricity surcharge for the next 14 years, which the government could have done if the funds had not been otherwise squandered.

“The PN had no problem wasting Lm191 million, but found it difficult to reduce the surcharge, which has been a burden on families,” Dr Sant added.

Long-standing projects that have been promised and not carried out include the Valletta entrance and the Opera House, the Ta’ Qali Crafts Village, the White Rocks tourist complex, the Drydocks Dock 1, the community centre for Victoria and the Fort Chambray project in Gozo.

“It’s little wonder the people of Malta are ready for a change,” Dr Sant added. “We can faithfully say that we are ready for the next election, but the people themselves will have to be the apostles of this change.”