Farrugia challenges PM to reply to statement on government workers

In a statement issued shortly before 1pm today, Farrugia explained that “more than 24 hours had passed” since Farrugia had made his revelation, however the Prime Minister had remained silent on the issue.

“In fact, 3,819 out of the 4,164 new jobs that were reported to have increased were the result of more people who were employed with the Government,” Farrugia re-iterated.

“The Gonzi Government, which has declared in words that it does not want to increase the size of the public sector, has the duty to give an explanation,” the Labour deputy leader for Parliamentary Affairs insisted.

PN reply
On its part, the Nationalist Party information office later today called on Farrugia “to be humble enough and admit that he had made a mistake in his statement by not making a difference between statistics that result from a sample and other statistics that result from a headcount”.

In a strongly-worded statement, the PN information office accused Farrugia that “24 hours after he made a clear mistake,” the Labour deputy leader, “instead of admitting that he made a mistake, he is arrogantly persisting in a mistake”.

Everybody who knows how to read statistics “knows the basic difference in the way in which information is collected for the Labour Force Survey and the Gainfully Occupied,” the PN information office charged.

“Anglu Farrugia is not making this difference and is erring,” the PN information office concluded its statement.