Councillors claim audit shows no abuse of funds

An auditor's report of the Pietà local council accounts showed that, contrary to allegations by the Labour Party leader and media, there had not been any abuse of funds in the financial year 2005/2006.

This was stated by Pietà councillors Malcolm Mifsud and Annhelica Scerri.

The councillors said that last month auditor Anthony Cassar, who was appointed by the Auditor General to look into the accounts of the local council, resigned because he was not satisfied with the accounts he was presented with and said they were riddled with errors.

Consequently, the Auditor General appointed auditors from Grant Thornton to look into the accounts of the council for the year 2005/2006 when there was a Nationalist majority. In a report, the auditors concluded that all funds were accounted for and that there had been no abuse.

This discredited all that had been insinuated by the Labour Party leader and the party media, the councillors said.