From Mr S. Sultana

Reference is made to Mr Aquilina’s letter in which he criticized the councils that have a Labour majority, including the Sta Venera local council of which I am mayor (TMIS, 4 November).

I would have appreciated it had Mr Aquilina verified that the facts related to him were true before criticising my council. I categorically deny that the Sta Venera local council has ever failed to renew any of the past clerks’ contracts of employment because of their political beliefs. It is not true that the Sta Venera local council has ever fired any of its employees but, contrary to what Mr Aquilina stated, the local council renewed the contract of the executive secretary for a further three years after there was a change in management of the council.

The two clerks referred to by Mr Aquilina wanted to take vacation leave together. This is not permissible in an office manned by only three people. When this was explained to the clerks they decided to resign and the local council accepted their resignation.

As a local council, we have a responsibility towards our community to provide them with the best service possible and in this respect we felt that the clerks’ request went against our mission statement.

Furthermore, the council will never tolerate blackmail and thus in the circumstances, it was unanimously decided to accept the clerks’ resignation. This transparent way of taking decisions is contrary to what used to happen in the past under the council’s previous administration when, even though more than one resignation had been received, for some reason or another, the decision whether to accept such resignation was never brought up for discussion at local council meetings.

Months had passed since the clerks’ resignation when the current administration of the local council found some missing computer documents belonging to the council. We felt that this merited further investigation and in fact the case has been passed on the local police. At this stage of the investigations I am not in a position to comment further on the case. However I feel confident that the police will come up with results after investigations are concluded.

Moving on to the employment of the present local council staff, I can put Mr Aquilina’s mind at rest that these were selected after more than 35 interviews had taken place. Nevertheless, their interview was conducted by the committee responsible for contracts and finance within the local council, which scrutinized each candidate eligible for the post of clerk for our local council. Both current clerks enjoy the trust of all the councillors and in the past months since their engagement have proved their commitment and loyalty to the council.

Surprisingly, Mr Aquilina failed to mention the fact that the previous council led by the PN left a deficit of more than Lm23,000. I think this is what is called actually shame!

Despite this deficit, Sta Venera’s Labour-led council managed to carry out various infrastructural work in Quarries Street, part of Canon Road, Dun Xand Cortis Street, Bir Street, part of Markiz Scicluna Street, St Paul Street, Braille Street, Soll Street, Turretta Street and Ghollieq Street. Not to mention that in the coming days junctions in Quarries Street and Carob Street are going to be built.

Further to this, a massive infrastructural project in collaboration with MEPA, is being carried out in Parish Street that includes the embellishment of a playground area for which the council has to pump out a further Lm7,000.

I must not forget to mention the many subsidised or even free courses that have been organised throughout the term. If all this is called shame, I wonder whether Mr Aquilina lives on this planet or somewhere else.

Stephen Sultana

Mayor

STA VENERA