Labour to investigate any oil purchases abuse - Farrugia

A future Labour government would investigate anybody who might have abused in oil purchases made over the past few months, Labour deputy leader Anglu Farrugia told the party's annual conference last night.

Speaking just hours after Enemalta said it had a positive balance of $10.7m from oil purchases in the past 15 months, Dr Farrugia said there were other reasons why the government was not telling the people why they were being sent exaggerated water and electricity bills.

The government needed to say who was responsible for oil purchases, the volume and price of those purchases and who the oil was bought from in the past 18 months.

Dr Farrugia said that the way the government had handled the financial crisis had created a crisis of its own for Malta. For instead of easing burdens on businesses and the people, the government had actually imposed new ones.

He also pointed out that the government had exceeded its spending projections last year, especially around election time. He asked who would be held responsible for this over-spend.

The country, he pointed out, now had a national debt equivalent to €7,350 per person, or €2.3 million per week.

Inflation, he said, was among the highest in Europe and the EU itself was no longer believing the Maltese government and had made GDP predictions which showed a sharper drop for Malta than the government was forecasting for this year.