Malta Labour Party leader Alfred Sant, addressing supporters gathered at Howard Gardens, Mdina yesterday, continued to spell out elements of the party’s plan for a New Start (Bidu Gdid) should it be elected in the forthcoming general election.

Dr Sant also said the MLP would replace the heads of public sector entities with people open to transparency and accountability, should it come to power the next time Malta takes to the general electoral polls.

Taking a number of swipes at the current Nationalist administration, Dr Sant expressed serious reservations over the fact that over the last four years, the country has spent Lm191 million more than it should have across a number of different projects.

“These things will no longer be tolerated by a Labour government,” Dr Sant warned.

As such, Dr Sant explains, a new Labour administration would replace those currently at the helm of certain public entities with people who are open to transparency, accountability and who employ correct working practices.

Such a policy would apply to parliamentary secretaries, ministers as well as the Prime Minister – all of whom are elected by the people to work for the betterment of the country, and that under a Labour administration no one would turn a blind eye when such work is not being carried out as it should be.

Labour’s plan, Dr Sant explained, would also mean that those at the head of state entities such as the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and Enemalta, which give permits and award contracts, would be held accountable for their actions.

“In a nutshell, a new change means such matters will be done in a transparent manner,” Dr Sant explained, adding that people placed at the top of such entities under a Labour government after the general elections would be subject to clear, ethical standards.

“The MLP will not act as the current government has done. For example, before the last general election, it had boasted about the health of Malta’s public finances, when in fact it later had to increase taxes by Lm60 million per year.”

A Labour government would use facts and not empty words when developing the measures needed to ensure Malta does not rank last in the European Union when it comes to a host of educational standards.

“This, at the moment, is unfortunately the reality,” Dr Sant commented, “despite the boasting, pomp and one photograph after another of the Prime Minister with schoolchildren.”

Invoking the Mater Dei hospital saga, Dr Sant observed that to this very day, there is still no clear plan as to how the hospital would be operative by the target date of 1 July, and added that, as such, the government has now said it is only to begin the migration plan from St Luke’s on the date.

Dr Sant described quay construction works at Cirkewwa and Mgarr as “monstrosities” that have resulted in nothing more than a significant wastage of funds on never-ending projects.

Dr Sant closed off his discourse by addressing the outcome of this week’s Worker’s Day celebrations, commenting that if anyone had left Labour’s festivities in Valletta disappointed with the way in which the day was celebrated, it was only the Nationalist Party which confirmed what a “bad loser” it is.

Dr Sant added that despite the sense of joviality at the event, the PN had it tried to churn up stories that no one believed, even about Labour’s guest performer Italian Toto Cutugno.