Reference is made to Mr P Aquilina’s letter entitled 60 years of Labour follies (TMIS, 7 October). In reply to his allegations, I suggest that Mr Aquilina should check his figures before going into print. He could have done so by consulting the audited accounts, which are public. These are available in our offices and also in other departments such as the Local Government and the National Audit Office.

For the year ended 31 March 2005 – the very last day on which Mqabba local council was led by a PN majority – the auditors recorded a deficit of Lm5,000. Included in this figure was a Municipality contingency sum for resurfacing work in M’Ang Sapiano Street and Hospital Alley, amounting to Lm10,000. No official architect’s estimate was ever presented to Mqabba local council for this resurfacing work. The bill for the work was presented by the contractor to the then MLP-led council in December 2005 and exceeded this contingency by another Lm10,000. Therefore, the cumulative deficit amounted to circa Lm15,000, and a negative amount in the working capital of circa Lm34,000.

The audited accounts for the years 2005-6 and 2006-7 reveal a surplus of Lm21,000 and Lm11,000 respectively. Contrary to what was said by Mr Aquilina in his letter, this is a very positive achievement for the years administered by the new council. In fact, as soon as the new council took office, it reached an agreement with the Director of Local Government to make up the deficit over a three-year period, in order to organise itself and follow the Central Government strategy as regards the national deficit.

However, in just over two years, Mqabba local council has also managed to conclude a major project that has proved beneficial to not only the local community but also to the various drivers who inevitably pass our village on a daily basis on their way to the north of the island. The widening of Sejba Road has eliminated heavy vehicular traffic from the village centre and it was only possible by taking up the challenge of building a massive wall from a deep quarry down below, up to road level.

Another project that has also been completed during the last two years is a holistic traffic management scheme for the village centre. A number of roads were made one-way in order to increase the number of parking spaces. This project required several consultations with the public, as the students of the primary school in Valletta Road had to be given priority. The project involved new pavements, decorative solar electricity lanterns for street lighting a new zebra crossing and comfortable new park benches.

Finally, I would like to thank your contributor for bringing up this subject, as Mqabba local council has worked hard to not only eliminate the deficit but also to solve the liquidity problem. We now hope to completely eliminate this inherited shortage of liquidity once and for all, by the end of this legislature.

Anthony Bonello

Executive Secretary.

Mqabba Local Council