Gozo can contribute to development

The parliamentary report on the debate of the Gozo vote in the Committee of Supply (November 24) titled Gozo Can Be A Contributor To Malta's Development said inter alia that the Minister for Gozo "belied opposition spokesman Anton Refalo who had complained that voted funds were not being utilised.

"She said only €163,000 were still unspent and these were expected to be exhausted by the end of the year".

Though the minister, in her usual style, tried to veil the government's failure, year in year out, to spend large sums of funds voted by Parliament for investment in Gozo, what she actually said was that "the funds that were voted for Gozo were spent... We have to say that where EU-financed projects are involved, that budget has to follow the works' schedule of the project itself and, to mention one figure, this year all that remains to be spent, excluding EU funds, is a sum of €136, 000 and we are still in mid-November and, God willing, by the end of the year every single euro and every single cent will have been spent."

What the minister said is therefore a clear admission that EU co-funded projects are being promised by the government and funds are being voted for their implementation by Parliament but, then, the government fails to honour its promises and to implement the projects.

However, let me show that whatever the minister said did not belie, as The Times incorrectly reported, my statements of plain facts. Let me briefly raise the points I made on the issue of unspent funds approved by Parliament for Gozo.

In the preamble to my speech, I said that "it is not acceptable to have a minister who, year after year, fails, to the detriment of Gozo, to spend funds that this Parliament votes for Gozo.

"I say this as the Prime Minister and the minister come here to boast how much money they are going to spend in Gozo and, then, every year without fail, they fail to spend them."

I then passed on to quote figures from the official Financial Estimates for the years 2005 to 2009, listing the funds approved each year by Parliament for capital investment in Gozo and how much of these funds were left unspent in spite of the government's declared promises to spend them.

I said that it resulted from these official documents that, in the past five years, the government failed to spend €28.6 million of public funds allocated and approved for Gozo. Now, the government is boasting that €25 million will be spent on an eco strategy for the island.

One can easily note that, were all the €25 million to be spent - and the government's track record is not encouraging - Gozo will still be owed €3.6 million in funds left unspent over the last five years.

I then went on to give year by year a list of promised projects that were never realised.

Let me reproduce, as an example of the truthfulness of what I said and which I quoted in my speech, what the Prime Minister said in his Budget speech for 2008:

"This evening, I am announcing an increase of one and a half million liri (€3.5 million) in expenditure for Gozo in order to support Gozitan families in their commitment to bring out the unique potential and opportunities of this island.

"This evening, I shall be announcing measures and projects that will continue to create job opportunities, embellish the environment, reward the taking of initiatives and enhance the Gozitan tourism, cultural and artistic product.

"During the next year, we shall be pursuing various projects and programmes and we shall be launching new ones:

"1. The government will be constructing a new back office centre in order to increase Gozo's potential in offering new opportunities for this type of work.

"2. In the Gozo Hospital, a radiology section will be developed and the second modern operating theatre will also be equipped.

"3. Investment in the agricultural and fisheries sector in Gozo will continue through the pursuing of the slaughterhouse project.

"4. (i) The second phase of Mġarr Road will be undertaken, (ii) as well as the construction anew of Ta' Pinu Road and (iii) Xlendi Road, with European Union funds.

"5. In Xlendi, facilities will be constructed so that Gozo may be able to benefit from the stopover of cruise liners.

"6. The rehabilitation project of Ġnien Villa Rundle, in Victoria will be completed.

"7. The rehabilitation project for Xatt taż-Żewwieqa and the Port l-Antik ta' l-Imġarr shall be commenced.

"8. The government will be launching a programme so that the two theatres in Gozo will be capable of being used for conferences throughout the whole year. This should continue to improve the tourist product for Gozo.

"9. Heritage Malta will pursue with its projects of conservation of the Ġgantija Temples and the surroundings with a view to making out of Xagħra a national tourist centre connected with Malta's and Gozo's prehistory.

"10. The process so that a museum of modern and contemporary art of national level be set up in Gozo will be commenced.

"11. The government will be offering land to educational institutions of international repute, which will be interested in developing their campus in Gozo and provide education programmes, principally addressed to international students.

"Mr. Speaker,

"We would like to do much more for Gozo. We are doing our utmost within the constraints of this Budget."

I then explained in some detail how not a single one of all the above projects and programmes was pursued or launched.

I then tabled a list of 159 projects and programmes that have been promised by successive Nationalist governments since 1987 but have never come to fruition.