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Kurt Sansone
Lawrence Gonzi yesterday defended his education minister from the Auditor General’s accusations of financial irregularities at the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools saying that Louis Galea did shoulder political responsibility when he took the necessary measures to stop the abuse around two years ago.
Addressing the press yesterday, the Prime Minister said it was “unacceptable” for the Auditor General to issue a back-dated report with no acknowledgement that measures were taken in the interim to rectify the situation. Gonzi’s comments put him on a collision course with the constitutionally appointed auditor general’s office, which acts as a public financial watchdog.
An investigation by the Auditor General into the operations at FTS, published this week, talks of gross financial irregularities in the way contracts and tenders were handed out and paid. It follows a magisterial inquiry that had reached similar conclusions some months back.
Asked by MaltaToday whether Louis Galea’s behaviour was acceptable, Gonzi insisted the minister had shouldered political responsibility two years ago by stopping the abuse and making sure that those responsible had their job with the foundation terminated.
The Prime Minister refused to draw parallels between the circumstances that led to former finance minister John Dalli’s resignation and the FTS case, when asked by a journalist to justify why Dalli was asked to resign despite having no official body condemning his actions.
“The John Dalli case cannot be confused with the FTS issue. They are two totally separate issues,” Gonzi responded.
Yesterday’s press briefing, the second for this year, was also characterised by the Prime Minister’s defence of the Nationalist Party’s decision to withdraw its candidates from the Zejtun and Marsa local elections at the last minute.
“It is not the first time that a political party decided to field a number of candidates so that no election would be held in a locality. If we look at what happened in the past we can see that the Labour Party did not field candidates in certain localities and as a consequence the election was not held. It is unacceptable that the Labour Party can get away with such behaviour but the Nationalist Party has to face all this flak,” Gonzi said.
But the Prime Minister refused to mention in which localities the Labour Party had withdrawn candidates in the past.
Ironically, just minutes before the press conference at Castille, Gonzi was on Radio 101 urging people to go out and vote next Saturday. “It’s useless staying at home to grumble about your Labour-led council. Go out and vote to make the difference,” Gonzi urged a caller from Zurrieq. Zejtun and Marsa residents won’t have that luxury since no election will be held after the PN withdrew four candidates.
Meanwhile, at Castille, Gonzi denied the Nationalist Party was not giving due importance to the local elections. “The PN is facing the electorate and is not scared to do so. Finally, it is the electorate that decides. But as a Government we have no time to waste. Decisions have to be taken irrespective of what electoral appointments the country may have,” Gonzi insisted.
The Prime Minister would not be drawn into commenting on his expectations for next Saturday’s election results.
EU Constitution
Asked about the EU Constitution, Gonzi said he saw no conflict between the EU treaty and the Maltese Constitution. He added that no amendments were required to the Maltese Constitution since the EU Constitution was a treaty similar to other international treaties.
The Prime Minister said the EU Constitution would be approved in Parliament by simple majority and saw no point in holding a referendum on the issue since the arguments were exhausted during the membership referendum in 2003.
Encouraged by recently announced investments in the private sector, Gonzi said the situation was looking up and Government was keeping within the financial targets set out in the budget.
“Investment is up but it is not good enough. We need to do more and our embassies have an important role to play in attracting foreign direct investment,” Gonzi said.
Commenting on the cost of living, Gonzi said 2004 saw an increase in inflation primarily because of the VAT increase to 18 per cent.
“Today the markets are open and we expect prices to go down. We are monitoring various sectors to see that competition does result in lower prices,” Gonzi said.
Referring to the gas crisis, Gonzi said the resignation of Enemalta chairman’s was not accepted. “The issue is not whether we should apologise or not. I am sorry for what happened, but what I am interested in is solutions and we have taken remedial action. I hope the situation does not happen again,” Gonzi remarked.
Sporting his characteristic beam, Gonzi said the government’s “pipeline was bursting” with initiatives that will come on line in the weeks to come. He did not elaborate what these initiatives were, but insisted Government will continue to work as hard as it did over the past 12 months.
kurt@newsworksltd.com
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