Opposition Leader Alfred Sant yesterday, once again called for the resignation of Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett, for what he termed to be “gross incompetence” in all the projects he has been involved in.

Dr Sant was speaking at a press conference held near the Manwel Dimech Bridge on a windy morning yesterday. He threw down the gauntlet to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday and said: “Dr Gonzi really needs to show a firm hand, and insist on Mr Mugliett’s resignation.”

Minister Mugliett has been a target of the opposition for several months, and not because of the Manwel Dimech project. Earlier this year, the opposition called for Mr Mugliett’s resignation over the scandal that erupted at the Malta Transport Authority. Mr Mugliett had offered to resign, but his resignation, however, was rejected by the Prime Minister.

Yesterday, Dr Sant said the Manwel Dimech Bridge was not the first project that had fallen flat on its face. “The scenario is repeating itself time and time again on cost matters, as well as time frame for completion,” said Dr Sant. He said that these issues were affecting the country’s competitiveness, and increasing the burdens which people have to shoulder. He said that it also meant that taxpayers were not getting a good value for money return on their contributions.

Dr Sant said there was a “whiff of corruption” about the whole Manwel Dimech Bridge project, labelling Minister Mugliett’s tactic to take the issue before the House of Representatives’ Public Accounts Committee, as ridiculous. “Although the PAC is chaired by a Labour MP, the majority of the committee is made up of cabinet ministers. How can they conduct an inquiry into their own project? This is a farce and a serious threat to the democratic concept of accountability,” said Dr Sant.

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Dr Sant said that facts showed that there were mistakes being made by the government which were costing people thousands of liri, and the name of one minister responsible for many of these mistakes kept cropping up.

“And I must also add that the inspection works at the bridge are being carried out by architect Robert Sant, the same architect who Mr Mugliett has shares in another architectural company with,” said the Opposition Leader.

Dr Sant said that this was totally unacceptable, adding that with these facts, there were solid grounds on which to base suspicions of corruption. He said he could not understand how the Prime Minister was not taking any form of action, especially when he says he has a firm hand. He said: “The Prime Minister should show a firm hand, and insist on his resignation.”

He also said that three dates of completion were given for the bridge, January, September and November 2007, yet till today only half the work had been completed. “Now we have a situation where the minister said he wanted the work to be completed by March 2008, and the contractor is saying May,” he said.

He also mentioned the war of words between the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises and the government about leaving the old bridge carriageway open for the Christmas period. He said that the GRTU was up in arms at being told that their proposal was being evaluated, when the government decided to go ahead and begin demolition anyway.

Speaking about the cost of the work, he said that in the 2006 Budget Speech, the Prime Minister said that the bridge was to cost Lm1.6 million, yet, so far, the cost had already exceeded the projected sum by about Lm400,000.

In a counter statement, the ministry said that Dr Sant was trying to evade a parliamentary investigation into false allegations he made about the bridge itself, in an effort to continue to sow doubt in people’s minds.

The ministry said the public had a right to know why Dr Sant was trying to get away from the investigation and also that he (Dr Sant) had no confidence in the PAC, which is chaired by Dr Mangion, and no confidence in the Auditor General.

The ministry also questioned Dr Sant as to why he had not accepted the invitation to quiz Malta Transport Authority staff over the project, even though the invitation was issued 92 days ago.

Instead, said the ministry, Dr Sant preferred to hold a press conference so as to continue his mudslinging campaign. Mr Mugliett asked Dr Sant whether there were any whiffs of corruption around the various projects he implemented as Prime Minister between 1996 and 1998, when the cost overruns were enormous, and the projects themselves took far longer than the stipulated time frame to complete. Mr Mugliett gave the Bugibba project Lm1.5 million cost overruns and the one-year delay in the construction of Zabbar Road in Fgura, as examples.

Mr Mugliett also slammed the allegation that he was involved in a consortium supervising the bridge project as a lie, saying that the tender for supervision was won by Köing, Heunish und Partner (DE) and Design & Technical Resources (MT) in 2005.

He said that he had no relation to the said consortia, adding that he was not involved in their administration, was not a shareholder and did not get any income through the project.

Mr Mugliett said Dr Sant’s lies were unacceptable and urged the PAC to convene at its earliest, to investigate the claims.