This government has been in office for practically two months now and it is legitimate to state that it is still in its honeymoon period. After numerous years in Opposition, criticism is permissible solely in cases of policy mistakes and crass ignorance and not in administrative decisions that are still being taken when the engine is not well-oiled and certainly not in full throttle.

One particular trait that was visible during the past 60 days or so and which this country has experienced during the last 30 years every time a socialist government came into office, is the moaning and groaning of a number of its ministers.

This time too, we have been inundated by a number of comments made by new entrants into political office, that they found nothing right, allegations of maladministration, requests for audits, requests for explanations and reports and a number of other useless exercises.

In my opinion, the Prime Minister should intervene and tell them all to get on with it, get their house in order and to start delivering.

This request for reports catches on like a house on fire; one request follows another and suddenly all we have are similar requests for the first couple of months. Alfred Sant’s government was no exception and the result was a lot of time wasting and expenditure of public funds that could have been better utilised.

The same has happened this time round; a number of ministers have followed this trend, which begs the question as to the purpose behind it. Could it be a time-gaining strategy; could it be needed for the ministers to come to terms with their ministries and for their staff to adapt to their new roles or is it merely an easy way of generating excuses?

This in turn leads Joe Public to a natural conclusion in these much criticised or red-flagged areas – that of questioning the previous administration’s doings. If we were to take the environment and waste management as examples, we can say much progress has been achieved in the last 10 years, considering not only the awareness now developed by Joe Public but also the contribution each and every one of us makes to these fields. The reports and investigations requested seem to try and give the impression of a rudderless ship. This position is not credible to those who want to be objective. Yes, there is so much more that could have been done. I for one have been a staunch critic of the “more that could have been done with the same financial investment”, but this does mean that all was wrong. This culture of moaning and groaning should stop. It sends the wrong message.

The same could be said about the declarations issued in the education sector. There can be no discussion about the strategic success of the concept developed. The new dimension experienced as a result of the creation of the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools, the benefit to our education sector as a result of the opening of a new school every year in areas that have been demographically considered, within time frames never before obtained and within the budgets established on the basis of similar projects in the private sector, are not questionable. There was never any issue with repayments, so why now?

Is it not time to be more politically mature and to accept what there is, to stop moaning and groaning and to make progress on same in accordance with the electoral programme?

Let’s get on with it.