Updated: 'Chronic delays' in Gozo projects

Updated - Adds reaction by Gozo Ministry: Delays in infrastructural projects in Gozo have become chronic, the Labour spokesman for Gozo, Anton Refalo, said in a statement today.

He said the Xlendi road was to have been rebuilt in 2005. The work started in 2010, the cost rose from a projected €1m to €4.5m and although works were to have been completed at the end of last year, they are not ready yet.

The abattoir was closed on May 1, 2004 because it was not in line with EU rules. It was meant to be upgraded and reopened in six months, but seven years on, the doors are still closed.

Work on the premises of the Institute for Tourism Studies, which were to include a hotel in Qala, were due to start in 2005 and be completed in 2007. In 2009 the prime minister opened a half-completed project, but the work is not ready yet and few courses are being held.

The road from Victoria to San Lawrenz Square was meant to be completed in 2006 but works, again, are not complete, even though the contractor was paid €1 million more than projected.

Dr Refalo said the Wistin Camilleri art and crafts incubation centre in Ghajnsielem was meant to have been completed in 2006. It was inaugurated in February 2008 but only three of the 10 workshops are being used.

The upgrading of Villa Rundle Gardens in Victoria was scheduled for completion last month. Now the Ministry for Gozo has extended the time frame to September.

The upgrading of the Gozo operating theatres was meant to start in June 2007 to be completed in March last year. The latest completion date was now next December.

The Żewwieqa seafront works were due to start on May 6, 2009 for completion in 2011. Yet the works contract had not even been signed by last March .

Dr Refalo said that contracts were being awarded to 'friends' but the projects which the Gozitan economy so sorely needed  were being carried out according to their own requirements.  

GOZO MINISTRY'S REACTION

In a reaction, the Ministry for Gozo said that in the last year alone, a new boys secondary school had been opened in Gozo and the radiology department at the Gozo hospital had been extensively modernised as part of a project for the restructuring of the second operating theatre.

The projects referred to by Dr Refalo would make, or were making, a difference in the respective sectors. They needed extensively planning  and calls for tender which took their time. However, despite Dr Refalo's slanderous allegations, all contracts were awarded in a fair and transparent manner, as evidenced by the fact that no funding from the EU was ever lost.

The ministry said Gozo never saw such massive infrastructural investment, not least in the roads and education institutions. In the art and design centre alone, 1,247 participants had followed 55 courses in the past year.