'Government finances out of control'

If the Prime Minister had been running a private company, he would have long been fired, Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat said yesterday.

He said Lawrence Gonzi had lost all control of the VAT department, the country's deficit and illegal immigration, among other things.

Dr Muscat called on the government to admit its financial gaffes and hold a mini-budget. It was shameful that in the first quarter of this year the deficit had soared to €265 million, almost equal to the €266 million deficit in the whole of last year. Before the general election, the government had projected a deficit of €68 million for 2008 but by the time the budget was announced in November that figure had ballooned to €200 million.

"You cannot expect to take the credit for the good things and then blame all the bad things on these 'waves' coming from abroad," Dr Muscat said, referring to the term Dr Gonzi uses to describe the global economic crisis.

He warned that the 7,000 new jobs Dr Gonzi had "dreamt of" consisted mostly of part-time works or replacing lost ones. He said the real figure of new jobs generated was only slightly over 2,000 and the conditions of employment had worsened because some employers were abusing of the fact that everyone was looking for a job.

The Labour leader broke his silence on the allegations of fraud within the VAT department saying that while the honest self-employed were fined for being a day late with their payments, government officials were getting away with corruption. The public had a right to know what the allegations were and who was going to take political responsibility.

Dr Muscat said that his party was prepared to vote in favour of an electoral amendment that would allow those who would be abroad to vote a week before the European Parliament elections but this had to come as part of a bigger package of amendments.

The voting document should be discarded so that it could not be sold and bought. He said residents of St Vincent de Paul should also be allowed to vote a week early so that there could be more surveillance and ensure that there would be no bullying. In the past, the elderly were bullied by caretakers to vote for the Nationalist Party and the government ensured that only PN-leaning caretakers were allowed to work on election days, Dr Muscat claimed.

On illegal immigration, Dr Muscat said the European Socialists had been very sympathetic to Malta's cause. Malta was right not to give in to Italy in the recent stand-off but the incident had proved the Labour Party right on the need for mandatory burden-sharing in the EU.

Although Dr Gonzi promised a wind-farm to be built some 20 miles off the coast before the election, this idea had now been put on the back-burner. He said the PN's Parliamentary Group was discussing where to build a wind-farm on land, with places like Gozo, Mellieħa, Rabat and Delimara being on the shortlist.

In reaction, the government said that, in light of the global financial crisis, it had chosen to protect jobs rather than reduce the deficit. A mini-budget was a bad idea because all it meant would be an increase in taxes to reduce the deficit. The government also said it had launched a €320 million investment programme to stimulate the Maltese economy.

The Nationalist Party said Dr Muscat was trying to take advantage of every situation without providing concrete solutions.