Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has appealed to anyone who knows anything about Thursday’s bomb at Transport Malta to speak up and help investigators bring the perpetrator of the “criminal and cowardly” act to justice.
He said the incident, together with the shooting of businessman Joe Baldacchino on November 23 and other cries, showed that criminals were still carrying out such condemnable acts.
He said he had instructed the police to keep investigating and he was confident that the criminals would be brought to justice.
Dr Gonzi said that on Thursday night he had visited Major Peter Ripard, the consultant who lost a leg in Thursday's blast. Major Ripard was always proud to work for his country, Dr Gonzi said.
The comments were made during a recorded interview on Radio 101.
GADDAFI'S FINANCIAL REQUESTS
Dr Gonzi was also asked about Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s request for €5 billion a year to stop illegal migration. He said he did not believe that Col Gaddafi was abusing of his country’s geographical location to threaten Europe.
Col Gaddafi's argument was built around the fact that the money was needed to invest in the African countries from where the immigrants were fleeing. Rather than being spent on patrols and building walls, these countries need help to improve their economy so that its residents did not leave, Dr Gonzi said.
The EU had been saying for quite some time that the solution was to help those countries and ensure that money spent there was well used, Dr Gonzi said.
The issue was not about money, but about people and everyone's duty to find a solution for them and for Europe that, after all, needed legal immigration.
Speaking about Air Malta following the first meetings of its steering committee on restructuring, Dr Gonzi said these were still early days, and decisions had to be taken on how to make the company efficient and competitive. The committee still has to establish the criteria on which to base the reform.
However, Dr Gonzi said, he wanted to encourage the workers. He believed in the future and potential of Air Malta, particularly in view of its record and its customer base.
He insisted that the current situation was not brought about by low cost airlines - although they exasperated the situation. Way back in 2004, when the first Air Malta reform was made, there were no low cost airlines, he said.
The current situation was a result of various factors, which also included the increase in oil prices.
POWER STATION
Turning to the power station extension contract, Dr Gonzi said explanations were needed after the allegations that Joseph Muscat had contacts with one of the bidders – Bateman.
“I am surprised and scandalised how the leader of the Opposition had contacts with a company that lost the tender... the company that came the last of the three bidders yet he was lobbying that the last comes first,” Dr Gonzi said.
Over the past three weeks Dr Muscat’s self-made bubble was burst when the Auditor General told the PAC that there was no corruption in the granting of the contract, Dr Gonzi said. This view was also echoed by the EU, and the PL allegations that the government had breached EU regulations were found to be unfounded.