The Office of the Prime Minister yesterday afternoon rebutted claims that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi knew about the criminal allegations regarding the son of Malta’s former ambassador to Ireland, Richard Muscat, who is accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old woman.
In a statement, the OPM said that the Opposition Leader is once again twisting facts in order to gain political mileage. The Maltese authorities only heard about the allegations involving Mr Muscat’s son last Friday afternoon, so Dr Sant was not telling the truth when he claimed that Dr Gonzi knew about the situation.
The OPM said Dr Sant’s unscrupulous comments are even more worrying because he knows about the condition of Mr Muscat’s son.
In a separate statement, Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono again denied claims by Dr Sant that she was in any way protecting an employee from allegations of fraud. On the contrary, she said, it was her ministry that had taken the initiative and informed the police about the matter and asked for investigations to begin. This, she said, was another of Dr Sant’s mud-slinging campaigns.
Meanwhile in another statement, Education Minister Louis Galea said that the allegation that “Malta was falling behind in the education stakes” was completely unfounded and without basis. He said there were no statistics or studies that reflected this claim and pointed out that, on the contrary, studies showed that Malta was making progress in education, with more students continuing their studies at a higher level.
He also said that adults were also furthering their studies later in life. “Unfortunately, the labour leader cannot see the progress we are making due to his political blindness,” he said.
Dr Galea also pointed out that the education system was being overhauled to create a college system to improve results and that a historic agreement had recently been signed with the Malta Union of Teachers.
He concluded by saying that the MLP would never be credible as long as it persisted in using education as a political football.