Opposition Leader Alfred Sant (photo) challenged Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday, to take immediate action against Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett.

Referring to the incident regarding two employees at Malta Transport Authority (ADT), who were found guilty of bribery, Dr Sant alleged that following pressure made from Mr Mugliett’s end, the two employees were not given the sack.

Speaking at a political activity in Zebbug, Dr Sant alleged that Dr Gonzi’s government was overcome by several cases of bribery. He said that while ministerial responsibility existed in the governmental hierarchy, Prime Minister Gonzi had to carry the biggest responsibility.

Dr Gonzi has been working with the same people that worked for former Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami. Only one person was removed completely from the picture without any explanation, said Dr Sant.

It appears that after two ADT employees were found guilty of bribery, the authority’s board had rightly decided to sack them, but Minister Jesmond Mugliett personally ordered ADT’s executive director not to discharge the employees, said Dr Sant, adding that the executive director did just that, but resigned soon after.

The Opposition Leader said that no matter what the reason behind Mr Mugliett’s order, it was a big mistake. The message that is being sent out is that as long as one is an insider of Dr Gonzi’s clique, anything is acceptable, said Dr Sant, making it clear that should the Labour Party be elected to government, such people would be investigated.

He said that other stories about Minister Mugliett that were revealed in parliament, are totally correct and he invited the minister to sue him for libel if he so wished.

He said it is no way for a minister to behave and it was useless for him to say that the whole case was going to be taken to the Anti-corruption Commissioner.

The commission was never able to take effective steps whenever the Nationalist Party was in government and the MLP has no trust in this commission, said Dr Sant.

Dr Sant also referred to the bribery case at the Department of Social Security. He also claimed someone was bribed to issue an invalidity pension to people who did not qualify for such a benefit. The Labour leader claimed that in this regard, such bribery has been happening for a number of years.

Someone who used to work in the private secretariat of Health Minister Louis Deguara was involved in this bribery case, claimed Dr Sant, insisting that a minister had to be responsible for those working in his private secretariat.

One case even dates back to 1993, when Labour MP George Vella had brought up an alleged bribery case. Although former Nationalist Minister Ugo Mifsud Bonnici had said that an investigation would be ordered, nothing ever happened, said Dr Sant.

Dr Sant insisted that it could not be the case that ministers would not know what would be going on. He mentioned the case involving about 800 people involved in bribery cases to obtain boat driving licences.

He said it was also shameful for Minister Censu Galea to have admitted with his canvassers that there existed abuse at the ADT, but that he did not know what to do about it.

The Labour leader also noted that Minister Austin Gatt had worked to cover up for members of his private secretariat regarding certain irregularities and one of them had ended up working abroad.

He made reference to the St Paul’s Bay by-pass, which was meant to re-open on Friday, but this did not happen, because during the last week it became evident that work on the sewage system had not yet been ready.

He said it was disgraceful that the completion of projects keeps being delayed and costing much more than expected – “The government never learns its lesson”.

During his speech at yesterday’s activity, Dr Sant also spoke at length about the Mater Dei Hospital and the fact that both Dr Gonzi and parliamentary secretary in the Finance Ministry Tonio Fenech had clearly committed themselves to the hospital receiving its first patients on 1 July 2007.

This was clearly not the case and Dr Sant asked Prime Minister Gonzi to explain what Friday’s ceremony at Mater Dei was all about.

He said the Labour Party was pleased that the project was close to completion, but questioned whether Skanska, as the contractors of the project, had been paid and whether all the documents regarding the handover had been signed.