Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono said the Labour Party was making baseless insinuations about a hypothetical loss of EUR3 million on the drainage treatment plant in Gozo. She was referring to an MLP statement issued on 20 September.

Mrs Debono said the Labour Party did not know, or was conveniently forgetting, that the nature of the project was such that the main costs would be paid for not in the early stages but in the last phases of the work.

In fact to date more payments had been processed than quoted in the MLP statement. So far EUR3.097 million had been processed by the EU, making the figure the MLP quoted outdated.

When Mrs Debono spoke in parliament on the two dates mentioned in the statement, she was fully correct according to how the project was proceeding on those dates. It was not true that the EU had been asked twice to extend the completion date. Only one such request was made by the government, and it was accepted.