These days, the Labour Government is being overtaken by the too many tales of corruption or bad practices that are surfacing in the media. Even the story of corruption at Mater Dei is backfiring, as the final impression being relayed by Government is that Dr Joseph Muscat is covering up for the corrupt.

The story of bad concrete for Mater Dei was literally resuscitated after the “balbuljata”or the mess made by Government over the project of a new University at Zonqor Point in Wied il-Għajn.

The story of bad concrete surfaced for the first time about a year ago in the wake of the Café Premier scandal. Then, silence. It seemed, as we say in Malta, waqgħet fuq ommha, that is, was buried alive. One would ask why?

Government then committed the gaffe of Zonqor Point. Immediately, this story resurfaced again in the media. Now the issue of the faulty concrete is starting to appear in different light. It is not clear whether Government is interested in getting to the bottom of the matter and giving us the truth.  Government is giving the impression that it is only interested in stirring up controversy to detract attention. There have been too many half-truths so far and nothing concrete – forgive the pun.

That Government is only after political coverage and not remotely interested in establishing the truth. This became clear when the Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Chris Fearne,said that those involved in supplying the concrete are not going to be automatically black-listed by the Government. Such a declaration can only be interpreted to mean that Government intendsto protect the culprits. Shame.

Yet for the first time, Government and Opposition are agreeing that work was not properly carried out at Mater Dei and the concrete was not up to standard. Perhaps, Government was banking on the idea that the Opposition would deny the presence of faulty concrete. Who knows?  But it is clear now, that the Opposition, under Simon Busuttil, did not bite the bullet. Busuttil has no interest to protect the previous Health Minister, John Dalli, and his brother, Bastjan, whose name has surfaced in JudgeEmeritus Philip Sciberras’ inquiry as being one of the suppliers of concrete for the building of this hospital. The PN is now claiming that the other companies, indicated inSciberras’ inquiry as having supplied concrete for the building of Mater Dei form part of the Tagħna Lkoll charade.

There is no doubt that these same contractors supported the PN in the past and had political clout and protection under the Nationalist regime. It was under Gonzi’s premiership that they lost their protection and this explains John Dalli’s rants on Super One during the last five years of the PN at the helm. It was a mistake for Joseph Muscat to have engaged them with his movement. After fifteen years in opposition, Labour was destined to win the elections with or without John Dalli’s support. Meanwhile the intimate political relationship that developed between John Dalli and Joseph Muscat is now coming back to haunt Labour.

At the same time, this scandal is starting to unravel some of the odd decisions taken in the past with regards to the building of Mater Dei Hospital. I believethat Mater Dei is the only hospital in the world where the services are on the roof and not in the basement. This explains why the hospital started to expand horizontally and not vertically. Normally, the services are in the basement and this is done to permit further development on top of the existing roofs when necessary. In the original plans, the services were indicated to be in the basement. At some point, there was a change in plans. Someone, somewhere, decided to have the services installed on the roof. Why?  And why has this issue not beencovered by the media? Is it conceivable that nobody is bothered?  The obvious questions that need to be asked now are;a) Who took this decision to change the original plans? b) Is there a correlation between the faulty concrete and this important change? And c)Why was John Dalli so keen to become a consultant to Joseph Muscat on Mater Dei?

Labour never imagined that in resuscitating the Mater Dei scandal, it was going to unearth a nest of vipers. There is no doubt that there are individuals, who are very powerful and whom this government wants to protect. Government’sbehaviour is now starting to be questioned.

The Mater Dei scandal is no longer a bête noir for the PN. Labour’spolitical ‘dribbling’ and tactics have backfired good time.