From Mr S. Sultana

Reference is made to Paul Aquilina’s letter of 2nd December in which he once again mentioned the Santa Venera local council.

I would like to re-affirm what I wrote in my last letter – that when I took over the office from the previous PN-led administration, Santa Venera local council was Lm23,000 in the red. This was stated by government auditors and not by myself. Therefore, I suggest that Mr Aquilina goes through the said report before writing twisted facts. Mr Aquilina should know that the government auditors’ report supersedes the accounts as published by the council and which, by the way, were reported by the previous administration.

Unfortunately we inherited this deficit due to the poor management of public finances and this was mainly due to the PN-led local council taking on various expenses that could not be met since there were not enough funds. Also various accruals were not taken into consideration and, as a result, the accounts in question did not give a true and fair picture of the financial situation.

As a result of the above, at that point in time, the government auditors had recommended the council not to incur any more expenses. In fact, the council had Lm24,500 in cash but owed more than Lm40,300. Further to this, as at 31, March 2005, the local council had a deficit of Lm47,531 which means that the council was in the red by circa Lm23,000.

However, having said that, I can put Mr Aquilina’s mind at rest that the deficit has now been turned into a positive surplus. Facts speak for themselves.

Stephen Sultana

Mayor

Santa Venera