Confident prime minister says Busuttil will lead civil service reform

Lawrence Gonzi unfazed by polls showing Labour leader: ‘voters today are deciding in the last 24 hours’.

7 March 2013, 12:00am
by Matthew Vella

2 min read

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi gave no hint that he would step down from the leadership of his party or even eventually as prime minister if re-elected, during a TVAM interview in which he asserted himself as a statesman who had shown foresight during the Libyan crisis.

Gonzi, who faces the electorate on Saturday 9 March after nine years as prime minister over two legislatures, said that he faced down criticism by the Labour Party during the uprising against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, to allow Nato to enforce a no-fly zone against the Libyan military.

Gonzi also reminded voters, in a particular appeal to first-time voters who will be crucial in determining this election, to consider the status of their jobs and educational opportunities in choosing the next government.

"If we don't create 25,000 jobs in the next five years, it will be a disaster," Gonzi said, reiterating his party's pledge for job creation. "For Joseph Muscat it would have been OK not to privatise the drydocks and let state companies bleed us dry through subsidies."

Gonzi also earmarked MEP and deputy leader Simon Busuttil as the man who in the next Cabinet would be charged with improving customer care reform across all government departments. "His job will be to change the culture and mentality inside the civil service, improve customer care and reduce bureaucracy," Gonzi said, citing Business First as one example where businesses could avail themselves of services from 25 departments under one roof.

"I'm still confident," Gonzi said in a comment on MaltaToday polls showing an 11-point gap between the two parties. "The Maltese have matured and voters are now deciding in the last 24 hours. And this is the picture we have now."

Gonzi also played down claims that no funds had been earmarked for a seven-year project for the construction of a gas pipeline between Malta and Sicily.

"The next EU budget will give us €63 million for the pipeline and a feasibility study, and we were the fifth state to qualify for this money as an island-state not to be isolated from the European mainland. Muscat has nothing to speak for: his gas terminal project does not even qualify for these funds and will increase tariffs by 5%," Gonzi said, citing a KPMG report commissioned by Enemalta into the Labour proposal.

Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...

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mela the first task of Simon will be to investigate why the CEO of internal audit had so much power and what happened to the Audit General report on the breach of ethics conducted at her office?

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Jekk Simon il-medjatur tal-kcejjen se jirnexxifir-rifroma fic-civil daqs kemm ippersweda Nazzjonalisti biex jergghu jivvotaw GonziPN- mela zgur li se ikollna kawlata u froga magnus deus, kif jghidu il-latini! Jien xrobt flixkun whisky illum biex x'hin nistenbah is-sibt fil-ghodu ma jkollix cans nizbalja u nerga nivvota GonzipN bhal ma nisthi nghid ghamilt 5 snin ilu!

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Mela issa veru għandhom min x'hix jibzgħu dak kollha li jaħdmu fiċ-ċivil , għax jekk jerġa jitla gvern Nazzjonalista għandna konferma u ammissjoni , li meta issir riforma fiċ-ċivil , Simon Busuttil zgur li ser iħares lejn l-uċuħ . Dan jikkonfermaħ hu stess meta stqarr li jinduna u jagħaraf jekk wiċċ ikunx ta' Laburist jew Nazzjonalist blu ċar jew blu skur. Għax mhux il-laburisti biss għandhom jibzgħu , izda anke dawk li huma ta' kulur blu ċar billi dawn ma jkunux miċ-ċirku ta' ġewwa . U nerġgħu nibdew biċ-ċrieki taċ-ċrieki fiċ-ċrieki .

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GIDDIEB, GIDDIEB, GIDDIEB

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..... prim ministru kawlata daqs gonzipn ghax irid jinholoq ..... issa qed jghid li jrid ipoggi lil simon busuttil (?????) biex imexxi kultura u mentalita gdida fic-civil ...... dan meta simon hlief jghidilna li hu ma kienx hemm meta graw il-hnizrijiet kbar ta' dawn l-ahhar snin ma ghamilx ..... dak jekk jaghtih dil-bicca xoghol jibda jghid li ma kienx hemm meta dahlet il-kultura u l-mentalita tac-civil tal-lum ..... dan tinsiex, wara li ghadu kif ta zieda ta' 2.5% fis-sena lil kull impjegat ghall-erba' snin li gejjin ... allura naghmilha ta' hmar, ma setax rabat din iz-zieda ma' din il-bidla? .... aktar ma jghaddi z-zmien aktar naghrfu kemm gonzipn hu skadut, imhawwad, imgerfex, ghajjien, tilef il-boxxla ...... igri jasal mhar il-hadd halli jistrieh u jserrahna .....

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The Prime Minister and the PN have declared that they will be creating 25,000 jobs for the simple fact that their own economists said that to keep up with the constant rising government expenses and also the electoral promises the country needs to create at least 25,000 new jobs or else it would go through a financial disaster, hence their decleration for these jobs.

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Could Dr. Gonzi kindly specify whether this civil service reform is the one that Dr. Fenech Adami started in 1992 or a new one? The reason I'm asking is that we don't know exactly what benefits we reaped from the first PN proposal except meaningless quality service charters hanging on the walls (ask the public regarding their effectiveness), expensive new airconditioned offices (still empty in the afternoons in summer) and higher salaries resulting in a bigger debt (yet still, no accountability - many of these highest-paid employees having been implicated in numerous corruption scandals over the years). ANOTHER CIVIL SERVICE REFORM?? Not like this one and not under the PN's "management", thank you. One more would kill us!