From Mr P. Aquilina

There is no end to the shame local councils with an MLP majority bring upon themselves. My contributions only scratch the surface and by no means reflect the actual depth of absurdity, lack of respect of the law and the partisan politics adopted by these councils.

Very few Labour councils abide by the law, and those that do have in fact ignored the last MLP directive, which is to use Labour-dominated selection boards for employment of council staff hand-picked by the Labour Party. This system complements the MLP General Secretary’s statement that Labour is for Labourites. The Zejtun local council is one of the Labour-led councils that ignored the MLP directive.

The Mqabba local council executive secretary thought it fit to reply to my contribution in The Malta Independent on Sunday. It is neither my intention nor my wish to start an argument with a Labour council employee, I have too much respect for them, but once he politicised his reply I have no option but to make my comments.

A local council executive secretary’s loyalty is to all the councillors whichever party they represent, whether MLP-led (as he states) or otherwise. Secondly, if as Mr Bonello stated there were some errors committed prior to the 2005 audited accounts, then he himself has to shoulder the blame as he was the council’s financial executive during that period the same as he is now.

I fully understand the Mqabba executive secretary’s worries, but he can rest assured that after March 2008 when the PN retakes the Mqabba council, his job will be guaranteed.

Unlike the MLP, the PN does not use council employees and has never refused to renew any contracts just because these were of different political opinion, like the MLP did in Rabat, Pieta, Sta Venera, Luqa and other places.

There are a number of Labour-affiliated executive secretaries who have been working with PN councils for years – that’s how it should be. What Mr Bonello should and must avoid is to be used or try to play the “Viva chi Regna” bit; otherwise he will lose the respect he deservedly enjoys of the Mqabba residents.

I repeat what I have already stated, which is that in only a two-year period the MLP have made a mess of the Mqabba local council.

MLP councils under police investigation

Pembroke: This Labour-led council has many problems. Very often council meetings are not held due to lack of quorum; in the past week the meeting was cancelled twice because of this. This is mainly due to the animosity that exists between the Labour councillors: two are in the Alfred Sant camp and the other with the Michael Falzon group. The police arrested one of the Labour councillors some months ago in connection with a particular council tender. The police in fact searched for and collected a number of documents. The police are still investigating the case.

Cospicua: Some months ago the mayor paid for a personal court case out of public funds. This same mayor is being investigated by the police for breaking the law by employing a relative without declaring his conflict of interest.

Mosta: This council is under investigation by the department, which is considering taking legal action against it.

Sta Venera: Two young girls who were employed with this council had to leave their job because this Labour council made their life a misery. Instead, this council employed the Qormi mayor’s (Labour) sister – another case of Labour is only for Labourites. But as this was not enough the Labour council went a step further and reported the young clerks who had left their job to the police for allegedly cancelling some computer templates. This shows Labour’s inhumane ruthlessness with ordinary workers.

Dingli: This Labour council spent Lm80,000 for the construction of small offices, which is more than three times the sum spent by the PN Qala council to build a whole civic centre in the locality.

I can carry on with this litany of shame. What happens in local government is proof of what will happen if the Labour Party is given power at national level. We have tried Labour under Alfred Sant, and what is actually happening now at local level happened in Alfred Sant’s government between 1996 and 1998.

Your readers will be interested to know the case of the paramedics’ examination, the manipulation that took place and the falsifying of signatures later confirmed by the courts.

This case goes back to 1997 when a selection board was formed of Mr Ripard as president and Marion Rizzo and Rita Sant. Their responsibility was to interview applicants and report their conclusions to the director.

The board had to choose people for employment as paramedic aides in the Department of Health. There were more than 1,000 applicants and 50 interviews a day were held.

Only Ms Rizzo was responsible to input the applicants’ marks obtained in their interview in the computer, do a printout of the report and give it to the president of the board.

Police investigations revealed that there were irregularities. Names of chosen applicants were put at the top of the list of those recommended by the board. However, only 227 applicants passed but the covering letter showed that the number was increased by 14

to 241.

All this took place during the 22 months the Labour Party was in power. This case shows the irregularities, the filth, the corruption and the abuse that takes place when Labour is in power.

Even in Opposition Labour has lied to the people and shown it can never be trusted. The Dubai visit is a case that is fresh in everybody’s minds. This happened only a few months ago when the Labour Party declared that a Labour Party delegation led by the Deputy Leader visited Dubai between 19 and 22 June 2006.

They said the delegation included shadow ministers Charles Buhagiar and Leo Brincat, as well as Party International Secretary Joe Mifsud. The Labour Party said the reason for the visit was to attract investment to Malta.

What the Labour Party did not say was that four contractors had joined the delegation secretly. These contractors owned shares in companies in which Labour shadow ministers were also shareholders or directors themselves. Dr Alfred Sant approved that delegation to Dubai.

The contractors involved paid for the flights and the hotel charges themselves, which means they were there in their own or their own companies’ interest.

These two cases are a short brief on Labour’s way of manipulation and deceit, the same way they did at the last local councils election in Mosta last March.

Labour cannot be trusted.

Pawlu Aquilina

Co-ordinator

PN Local Councils