The privileged few II

In a previous article by the same title, I had addressed the government's excessive and uncontrolled expenditure. I had also stated that it could be well worth its while to continue to analyse this sort of capricious expenditure.

In the last budget, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, as Finance Minister, had declared that his government had a moral obligation to try and restrain its expenditure, wherever this was practical.

Facts will show, however, that notwithstanding the Prime Minister's utterances, nothing practical was done to curb wastage and uncontrolled expenditure.

The figures will show, for example, that while in the first seven months of 2004 the government's expenditure stood at Lm520 million, in the same period this year it soared to Lm550 million. This is a Lm30 million or six per cent rise.

In my previous article, I had hinted that over the last few years, perhaps to accommodate certain privileged persons, the government tended to contract consultants and similar advisors galore, thereby increasing considerably the burden on public funds, again capriciously. I declared my intention to start analysing this phenomenon in some depth.

Last year, for example, public expenditure in consultancy fees paid by the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance and by the ministries run by Austin Gatt, George Pullicino and Censu Galea amounted to an astonishing Lm2.6 million. This signifies an expenditure of no less than Lm300 an hour, a considerable amount indeed, and this only with regard to four ministries.

I am doing my earnest to compile more information with regard to all the other ministers. However, I am encountering certain difficulties. The reason for this is that many consultants and advisors employed by the administration are being engaged via the numerous new authorities and government entities that are sprouting like mushrooms.

Thus, when the question is put to a particular minister on how much his ministry is paying in consultancy fees, more often than not the amount being paid through subsidiary government entities is either purposely or conveniently omitted and, therefore, we are never given a clear picture.

However, I am now in the process of drawing up a number of parliamentary questions aimed at establishing, once and for all, the true amount of public funds being spent in this fashion. From the figures I have so far managed to retrieve, such amounts will surely prove to be astronomical and in no way justified.

While the Prime Minister declared, in March last year, that the Nationalist government would not address the problems of national debt and structural deficit by means of new taxes but by restraint, the opposite is happening. In this respect, the government found no hesitation in introducing VAT on 400 new items; it introduced a surcharge of 17 per cent on water and electricity bills, raised telephone tariffs, introduced an eco tax, increased the passenger departure tax... the list goes on and on.

In the same instance, however, the government scandalously took no measures whatsoever to cut its expenditure, especially with regard to capricious items.

For example, last year we see how the Nationalist Party in government was callous enough to exceed the budget allocation by Lm600,000 in terms of trips abroad, parties and cars.

This year, the Ministry of Finance, run by the Prime Minister himself, authorised the purchase of 46 new cars. In this case we can still recall how the Prime Minister had promised that the government would only buy new cars in exceptional circumstances.

All this has to be analysed within the context of the Auditor General's report. The Auditor General, in fact, has had occasion to confirm wastage, lack of transparency and the infringement of financial regulations.

The public is right to be outraged and to demand more accountability.

Dr Herrera is a Labour MP.