The billion euro question

I was struck by the subjects of two letters in The Times (January 1) which were published side-by-side. If the sub-editor laid them out like that intentionally, he deserves a pat on the back.

The first letter by Stefan Gauci Scicluna dealt on governance that - according to a White Paper published by the European Commission - should be based on the principle of openness, transparency, coherence and accountability.

Transparency was Lawrence Gonzi's apothegm when he was elected Prime Minister. Another was accountability. We all thought it was the dawn of a new and just era for Malta, a little gem of an island that has been forever drowned in rampant dishonesty (fiddling the Inland Revenue) and "condoned" by respective governments.

The word condoned is justified by the second letter from Louis C. Spiteri, which talks about the Auditor General's report on the Public Accounts for the year ending December 31, 2007. Four areas of revenue "arrears" were listed: Income tax, VAT, court fines and TV licences. Between them, the "loss" to the government amounts to nearly Lm203,400,000.

Now if such a "loss" was sustained by a conglomerate or a consortium, the chairman and the chief executive would have been shown the door: voted out by the shareholders unless they did the honourable thing and resigned. How many of the heads of departments in question have been sacked for allowing arrears to run riot? And why has the Minister for Finance not resigned over such gross mismanagement? (Oops, I forgot! In Malta ministers never resign over incompetence, they simply shrug their shoulders and blame others for their sins!)

Fiddling the government is a common pastime in Malta, the only ones who do not participate are those on PAYE and honest taxpayers. Can we expect the government of the day to chase, fine and even imprison (if need be) those erring big business magnates, when these contribute heavily to party funds? Yes we can...because our Prime Minister, on taking the oath of office, told us he was insisting on transparency and accountability from his government.

Dr Gonzi has always been regarded as an honest and caring man. So as a long-standing PN voter, may I ask him why are we not getting the transparency and accountability he continues to promise us? Why are certain ministers who keep falling short of expectations still muddling along? I, for one, am fast losing patience with the arrogance of ministers who believe they are untouchable.

In all aspects of government finance, there is over one billion euros owed in arrears. Think how much our tax could be cut if the government did its duty and collected its dues!

Think how many doctors and nurses could be employed to help cut down the long waiting lists at Mater Dei!

And best of all, we would not have to go like beggars asking for hand-outs from the European Council.