Nationalist MP Mario de Marco said today that the government blames every extra expense found on the General Estimates of 2021 on the Covid, but this is not true as only half of the added costs came up as a result of the pandemic.

Addressing the media, de Marco said that from the Auditor General’s Report of 2020, it is evident that there was a mismanagement of public funds. Quoting some of the Auditor General’s findings in such weaknesses, he noted that some entities did not comply with the request for information from the Auditor General and thus hindered his ability to perform his duties. 

He noted that the Auditor General found several missing audit trials, and internal and external mismanagement of public funds.

De Marco said that in the report, it was also noted that there was a substantial amount of missing collected funds, which the Government cannot now collect. He added that there was also mismanagement of payment in overtime allowances.

Referring to the Government’s decision to rent and renovate a property for the Malta Business Registry rather than buy one, de Marco said that it reaches a €2 million yearly expense which, over 15 years, would reach a €30 million expenditure. The NAO Report indicated that it does not have value for money.

In the same Report, the Malta Film Commission was also found to lack internal control. It resulted in an over-budget expenditure amounting to more than €1 million.

Referring to NAO’s Report on Vital Global Healthcare, de Marco said that the government had the chance to stop the Vitals Contract during the voting on the health budget that happened earlier this week, but it did not happen. He added that if the Nationalists were to be in power, they would ensure transparency on the use of public funds.

Nationalist MP Karol Aquilina he noted some government entities were also found in the report to not have acted appropriately. For example, WasteServ was not following contract rules, which resulted in the breaching of the law, as there had been several amendments to awarded contracts after they were approved by the department.

He noted that the Ministry for Foreign Affairs was found to have paid for expired contracts, amounting to thousands of public funds. When the Auditor-General requested information on how these were being used, he was presented with only 70% of the data.

Aquilina concluded that from the conclusion of this report, it is evident that the Government does not care about how public funds are being used.