Labour report will question official statistics

A Labour Party report to be published in the coming days will show how the authorities are "tampering" with official statistics, Alfred Sant said yesterday.

Speaking during a political activity at Paola, Dr Sant spoke of the "magic" statistics spawned by the National Statistics Office and claimed that this was the government's new method of solving problems.

The Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Tonio Fenech has rubbished the claims, saying it is no more than an attempt by Dr Sant to undermine the credibility of the NSO and to sow doubts at EU level in the crucial last year before possible euro entry.

The controversy erupted after provisional estimates for the third quarter of 2006 indicated a GDP growth of 5.7 per cent at current prices and, more recently, the creation of over 3,000 new jobs in a year.

Dr Sant said that, out of the blue, the NSO announced that the economy had grown more than past figures under the current administration had in fact indicated. He said that tampering with statistics in this way was convincing nobody.

During a news conference the other day, NSO officials explained that the revision of Malta's GDP statistics came about because of a new and updated system of collecting data.

Mr Fenech said when contacted yesterday: "The government cannot intervene in any way in the NSO's statistics, which are verified by Eurostat. The government is not even advised of any changes in collecting statistics".

He added: "Of course, I'll be very interested to read this MLP report, but I suspect this is nothing more than a dirty game since it's in the Labour Party's interest for us to fail to introduce the euro".

During the meeting, Dr Sant maintained a constant attack on the government, saying that apart from losing all electoral tests since 2003, it was failing in all sectors of the economy.

He insisted that millions of liri were being squandered in botched projects like Dar Malta, the Gozo terminal and on the long-delayed new hospital.

Dr Sant lambasted the new law governing NGOs, which is lined up for parliamentary debate today. Describing it as nothing more than a smokescreen, Dr Sant said the proposed law was effectively making sure the government remains completely in control instead of providing NGOs with easy access to funding.

Ultimately, though, he said, the MLP was gearing itself for change. "Let's work not only towards the local council elections in March, but especially towards the general election," he told those present.