In reply to Labour leader Alfred Sant’s comments regarding a handyman employed on a contract basis by the Mosta local council and his links with the Nationalist Party, Mosta mayor Joe DeMartino revealed the facts regarding the said handyman’s employment.

In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, Mr DeMartino said the local council regularly approved payments to the handyman, Philip Azzopardi, between the year 2000 and January this year.

Mr DeMartino said that Labour secretary general Jason Micallef was one of the councillors that approved of the payments and other Labour councillors only started objecting to Mr Azzopardi’s conditions of work towards the end of last year. The Labour councillors were always happy with the work carried out by the handyman, said the Mosta mayor.

He added that the process leading to the choice of handyman for the local council was transparent, open and public and took place following a call for expressions of interest.

Mr DeMartino said that if the Labour Party believes there was anything irregular in this process, he challenged the MLP to take action against the Mosta councillors, including Labour councillors, who always approved of Mr Azzopardi’s work and the payments made to him.