From Mr Pawlu Aquilina
Corruption is a very ugly word. The definition of this expression means either a decomposed or putrid matter, or the perversion of integrity by bribery or favour.
Let us examine in detail who exactly are the corrupt. At local level the Labour Party majorities have shamelessly committed the following corrupt practices against the people in their localities by misuse of public funds and showing favouritism to chosen Labour supporters. I hate to imagine what Labour will do if they take over the government of this country.
The 13 local councils collected almost e2 million in traffic wardens fines with a Labour majority contesting next month’s election. These were taxes collected in just two years from the localities of Dingli, Kirkop, Marsa, Mellieha, Mqabba, Pembroke, Sta Venera, Senglea, Ta’ Xbiex, Xewkija, Zebbug, Zejtun and Zurrieq.
The figure nearly triples if all Labour councils had to be included.
This is the way Labour works; it taxes the people without mercy. The Labour Qormi local council for example, has plans to tax the people over one and a half million euros over the next three years; this is what they declared in their three-year business plan.
Labour is only for selected Labour supporters
After appointing a selection board to choose only Labour supporters as council’s staff members, they did not stop there. In the last few days Labour councils continued to drown in the cesspit of the abuse of power.
During a council meeting in Birzebbuga the council ignored the selection board and decided to appoint the council’s Labour deputy mayor as the Executive Secretary. This selection process had been going on for months. The present Executive Secretary, who is very efficient, had tendered his resignation before the last budget speech, when the government announced that people can keep on working after they turn 61 without losing their pension. But the Birzebbuga council did not offer him the chance to withdraw his resignation, even after 15 years of loyal service to the council.
There is doubt whether the deputy mayor has the necessary qualifications required for the job, but the mayor informed the council that the department has given the go ahead for the deputy mayor to be considered for the position irrespective of his qualifications. On checking with the department I was informed that this was not true and that the department gave no go ahead. Therefore the council was misinformed.
There were a number of young people with the required qualifications for the job, a number of them Labour supporters, but for the Labour Party only the chosen ones qualify for positions. The young applicants and their families will do well to think about how their party operates; the job for Birzebbuga executive is equivalent to Scale 5 to Scale 7 in the Civil Service list besides a 10 per cent performance bonus paid annually.
Labour youngsters were ignored in favour of the deputy mayor. The job gives the opportunity, as it does to a number of Executive Secretaries in other Labour councils, to adopt partisan Labour politics. We are sure the department will take the necessary action and stop this abusive appointment.
Who are therefore the
actually corrupt?
Labour cannot preach against corruption or throw mud as it is doing now, days before the general election. Even at local level Labour councils with Labour majorities have corrupted the system in every possible way, from award of tenders, to appointments of staff, to ignoring the Local Council Act.
The following are some of the corrupt practices Labour has committed directly or by proxy in the last years.
1. Birzebbuga – Ricky Ltd, a company that belonged to the mayor, rents a garage to the same council. This has been going on for years. This council is now trying to appoint the Labour deputy mayor as the council’s Executive Secretary.
2. Cospicua – The mayor pays for a personal libel case out of the council funds, this council employs a secretary as a self-employed and yet pays her the same as if she was in fact a council full time employee; payments that included bonuses, leave and sick leave,
3. Dingli – This council declares payment of over E186,350 (Lm80,000) for three small rooms that are used as council offices.
4. Hamrun – This council excels in committing (or so they say) financial mistakes, like declaring an expense of over E232,934 (Lm10,000) for cleaning of beaches, buying CDs from Super One Production without a fiscal receipt, declaring an income of over E9,377 (Lm4,000) when this should have been written off, declaring E25,623 (Lm11,000) profit when the council had in fact made a loss.
5. Kirkop – This council did not have the decency to mention even once the millions of euros the government invested in the locality. The Labour councillors including the mayor, showed their arrogance when they left during an official function in the presence of the Prime Minister.
6. Luqa – This council collects fines from the MIA area when this place is not within its boundaries. Even here the abuse of jobs for chosen Labourites took place: the Executive Secretary is an ex Labour election candidate. This council was investigated last year for abuse concerning a tender for road works.
7. Marsascala – The council here employed a staff member after the person was chosen by the appointed Labour Party selection board and ignored the council completely. The mayor wanted to include partisan propaganda in the council magazine that is published with public funds. The same mayor went to a visit to China paid from public funds.
8. Mqabba – The council overspent public funds and created a deficit of over e80,000 in its working capital.
9. Mtarfa – The council completely ignores the law and does not hold meetings as required yet payments are issued regularly without the council’s approval.
10. Paola – The council breaks the law by employing five or six more employees than the maximum allowed. (This has been rectified after a report was published in this paper) The mayor here also went on a visit to China paid with public funds.
11. Pieta’ – This council employed an Executive Secretary without even holding interviews.
12. Pembroke – A Labour councillor was arrested for alleged fraud on a council tender. It has taken the police months to bring this case to court, and the case is still pending.
13. Qormi – This council plans to tax the people E1,327,743 (Lm570,000) in wardens’ fines in the current council’s term of office.
14 Rabat – The council did not renew the Executive Secretary’s contract in order to employ an ex Labour Party club president.
15 San Gwann – This council; employed the Labour Party club secretary as a clerk and did not discharge him even after the majority of the San Gwann councillors including the Labour deputy mayor voted for the clerk’s dismissal because of gross inefficiency.
16. Sannat – The mayor resigns and a new mayor is elected when the PN councillor was away from the island. The new mayor was elected with the help of the AD councillor at Sannat.
17. Santa Lucia – This council did not pay the council’s office rent for 12 years. The mayor and councillors paid a visit to China with the cost of the visit paid mainly from public funds. This council has had a financial deficit for years. The council paid Lm2,000 without an invoice being presented.
18. Sta Venera – This council reported council’s employees to the police for deleting templates even though these were all retrieved by the back up.
19. Tarxien – The mayor here joins the Labour group from Paola and Sta Lucija and his visit to China is paid for from public funds.
20 Zebbug (Malta) – This council holds the Labour banner as far as inefficiency and abuse is concerned.
21. Zurrieq – This council pays over E2,329 (Lm1,000) to the president of the GWU Youths for supposedly EU-funded consultation work, when a PN councillor offered to do this work free of charge.
These are only a few of the abuses and corrupt behaviour that goes on in our localities where the Labour Party has a majority. All these cases are recorded in black on white in the respective council’s documents.
AD loses two councillors
I am sure that the PN General Council president will permit me to quote him when he said that the AD are like a political water melon, green on the outside but very red on the inside.
Well done to Rene Rossignaud, the Swieqi councillor who stood up to be counted and pulled down AD’s mask and showed it for what it really is; more red than the socialists themselves. Michael Briguglio, although not officially, has distanced himself from AD and instead of AD councillor in his writings he declares himself as the voice of the left.
AD is a non-starter in politics and will remain so. After 18 years they have not gone past the two per cent public support mark. The way they act the more they will fail. Some joined AD not because of the abortion matter but for other reasons and the less said on this subject the better. Others like the recent acquisition!! Are the kinds of people that like to be part of the opposition, the likes of Toni Abela ex MLP turned AD and back to MLP? These kinds of people are a political liability anywhere they decide to join.
The people must realise that every vote to AD is a vote for Labour. Even at local level they contest elections in localities where the slightest PN misunderstanding occurs, only to steal PN votes.
This time AD has gone too far and in a few weeks’ time they will disappear from the Maltese political arena. Their hatred to the PN will cost them heavily. People will only waste their vote if they vote AD.
Pawlu Aquilina
PN Councillors Coordinator