Labour MPs yesterday kept up their opposition to the Financial Administration and Audit (Amendment) Bill, with parliamentary group whip Joe Mizzi saying the bill was intended to give the government the power to appropriate money without seeking the people's or parliament's approval.

Such a bill should never have been moved, especially since the Nationalist government had always tried to give the impression that the country's financial situation was not as bad as it seemed.

The main object of the bill is to provide for the protection of public funds from fraud and other irregularities and for the recovery of any such funds lost through such irregularities.

The bill includes a clause providing that the minister of finance may under certain circumstances authorise the issue of sums from the consolidated fund not exceeding 10 per cent of the sum appropriated for the financial year. He would be bound to make a report to the House within a month of such an appropriation.

Mr Mizzi said there had been several instances when public funds were not used well. Before the last general election, the government had spent around Lm700,000 on a waste strategy, which had even received the approval of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. Yet this strategy was now being shelved, as evidenced by the decision to build temporary landfills, which were not included in the strategy.

Turning to the restoration centre at Bighi, Mr Mizzi said that at least Lm250,000 were spent for a friend of a friend to bring over foreign experts who, it turned out, could not do what was expected of them but who still had to be paid in terms of their contract.

Mr Mizzi said there was a racket at the centre with private individuals taking personal items to be cheaply but professionally restored there.

A letter he had in his possession revealed how an architect, David Mallia, who carried out work for Mepa, also carried out works for the centre under his father's signature, his father also being an architect.

At Mepa, the son of a prominent member of parliament had a permit issue for development outside a development zone before the election without the normal procedure being followed.

At the new hospital in Tal-Qroqq, it appeared that the new, foreign-built chimney would have to be brought down.

The government was doing whatever it wanted and the people were paying for its mistakes.

It had become common for tenders to be awarded for work at a certain cost, only for it to quadruple by the time it was completed. Were these always mistakes?

Labour MP Joe Abela said that in the same way that the people had a duty to pay their taxes, the government and the administration had a duty to see that this money was being spent well.

The people became sceptical and sought ways to avoid tax when they saw their money not being spent well.

Mr Abela said the people paid several forms of taxation and expected a return. For example, they were irked when their roads were not surfaced even though they would have paid their contributions years back.

Mr Abela said that a positive step that had been taken was the setting up of cooperatives through which workers who had previously been considered surplus were grouped into cooperatives, a step which gave them initiative and motivated them. These cooperatives were competing in a commercial environment and managing to win orders from private entities and the government.

This showed that when workers were given autonomy, direction and motivation they were capable of giving value for money.

It also belied the impression that restructuring should mean trimming the workforce. It was the systems which had to be changed.

The House had been discussing giving autonomy to government departments for years. But even the supposedly autonomous foundations and authorities only had partial autonomy. When it came to issuing tenders or recruiting people, pThe US Food and Drug Administration has approved memantine for treatment of moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease. This is the first drug approved for the treatment of patients with this severity of disease.

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