From Mr Pawlu Aquilina

I refer to Joe Attard’s letter “Pawlu Aquilina’s red devils and blue angels” (TMIS, 11 November)

Mr Attard accuses me of overstatements, half-truths and twisted arguments.

I only state facts as recorded in the minutes of Labour councils and/or as stated by Labour council auditors. These are public documents and are available for everyone to see:

Employment of Labour councils’ staff

Mosta: Selection Board composed of five members as follows; mayor (MLP) minority leader (PN) plus three Labour members from outside the council who were Joe Cristina (Labour council candidate), Stephen Perici, and P. Caligari (Labour activists) - four against one when this council is made up of six MLP and five PN councillors. This is Labour democracy.

Marsascala: Joe Cristina (Labour council candidate), Paul Caligari and Stephanie Fenech all from outside the council and Labour activists. No elected councillor on the board.

This board decided on the employee and the decision was not even brought to the attention of the council but only to the mayor’s, who in turn did not inform the PN councillors as he said there was no need as he had informed the Labour councillors and they did not object. This is Labour democracy; the person has since been employed.

Mtarfa: The majority of the council requested that the board be formed with all the Mtarfa

councillors, five members. But the mayor refused. Instead the selection board was made up of the mayor, the deputy mayor and Stephen Perici (Labour activist), no PN councillor was on this board. This is Labour democracy.

Zejtun: Mayor Joe Attard, the deputy mayor and a PN councillor (which is the proper way).

So much for half-truths and twisted arguments on this subject; names quoted are as stated in the respective Labour councils’ public documents. After this came to light in the press the Labour Party seems to have stopped this abuse.

Labour councils planning and financial management inefficiencies

Mr Attard goes on to state: “The public perception that Labour-led councils generally perform better than PN led councils is the result of good planning, sensible financial management and hard work”.

Mr Attard please don’t make me laugh!

I list hereunder a small fraction of the Labour councils’ so-called good planning, (as Mr Attard claims) and sensible financial management that surely must be a figment of his imagination.

Cospicua: The Labour mayor pays for a court case out of council’s funds and is later ordered to refund the money from his mayor’s remuneration. He is currently under police investigation for breaking the law.

Dingli: This Labour council spent about Lm80,000 for the construction of small offices, which is more than three times what a PN council spent for its civic centre. Animosity between Labour councillors here is well known.

Hamrun: The Labour council finished with a financial deficit after receiving Lm148,000 warden tickets. This was besides a number of other mistakes in this council’s accounts.

Luqa: Lm172,000 warden tickets in two years; receives thousands of liri from warden tickets issued at MIA when this money should have been collected from the Zejtun tribunal.

Marsascala: The Labour mayor went on a visit to China using public funds. This council employed a staff member on the decision of a selection board outside the council, the mayor claiming that he informed the Labour councillors and, as these had no objection, he decided to ignore the PN councillors

Mosta: This Labour council in office for only seven months has made a mess of the council and is now under investigation by the department

Mqabba: This Labour council ran up a deficit of over Lm32,000 in just two years and is prohibited from carrying out further projects or activities by the department

Zejtun: This council is in a financially healthy situation but has an average income of Lm42,500 from warden tickets per year based on the financial years 2004/05 and 2005/06. I understand that the council has applied for a speed camera to be installed at tal-Barrani. The mayor was a member of the LES Board as the Labour councils’ representative with his counterpart being the Sliema PN mayor. Both of them serve on a voluntary basis.

Zurrieq: The Labour mayor resigned but withdrew his resignation after pressure. Rumour has it that he will not contest the forthcoming local election.

This council has recently paid over Lm1,000 to the president of the GWU Youths Section as payment for consultation work for EU funds applications. The appointment was later terminated.

The above is only a brief history about the good planning and serious financial management of the Labour councils, according to Mr Attard. I can mention much more should he be interested. The Labour fiasco is never ending.

The above is just scratching the surface.

As regards his experience on my party’s political ruthlessness (his words), personal matters do not concern me, I comment only in my capacity as PN Councils coordinator, but if Mr Attard was referring to the period when he was involved in the management of Super One, I remember I had read something in the papers about the subject in 1995. Besides that, I only know him by repute, as a councillor and later as mayor of Zejtun.

Kirkop local council

I refer to Dr Jose’ Herrera’s reply on behalf of the Kirkop local council re construction work of the council’s offices.

I have been involved with the administration of local councils since 1994, and whenever any government property is passed on to local councils this is not done by just a simple letter but a whole process of devolution takes place, which includes an application to the Director of Local Government and the presentation of a feasibility study prepared by the council involved.

If the Director in turn is satisfied that the council has sufficient funds available, he passes the matter to the Lands Department with his recommendations. On certain occasions the matter goes to Parliament.

From the information and documents I have, there was never any devolution to the Kirkop council on the land in question. Therefore my comments were neither unfounded nor malicious as Dr Jose’ Herrera states.

Furthermore, the value of the land in question is not clear whether it was included in the council’s fixed assets register as the Inventory of Council assets was not updated as at 31 March.

This was stated in the auditor’s management letter of 15 June 2006.

Pawlu Aquilina

PN Local Councils

Coordinator