BOV loan financing new Parliament project – Muscat

The construction of the new Parliament building was being financed through a loan from Bank of Valletta, which eventually would be paid for by the Maltese people, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said yesterday.

“The government told us the new Parliament would not be paid for by the Maltese because they had developed a system. Instead, we found out that the money is being borrowed from Bank of Valletta,” Dr Muscat told a political meeting in Qawra.

In the Budget for 2010, the government had announced that the new Parliament would not be a burden on the taxpayers because it would be financed through a National Investment Fund that, among other things, would consist of commercial rents and income from other concessions. However, the bank loan meant the Maltese and the Gozitans would have to make good for the money borrowed, Dr Muscat said.

However, a Finance Ministry spokesman insisted that the financing of the City Gate project would be administered by the National Investment Fund. Also, while Dr Muscat gave the impression that he was announcing something new by speaking about the loan, in a parliamentary reply last February, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Communication, Austin Gatt had said the project’s financing was based on a “special purpose vehicle” model handled by the Finance Ministry and that, until it was set up, the project would be financed through bank loans.

Speaking about SmartCity, Dr Muscat said someone had to shoulder responsibility for the government’s failure to fulfil a “basic obligation” that has not allowed the company to employ 1,000 as established in the contract.

The government said last week it had not yet “fulfilled its obligations” to demolish the Wied Għammieq sewage pumping station by 2008 because it was waiting for the relevant planning permits.

The Times reported on Wednesday that although the construction of the hi-tech village was on target the number of jobs generated fell well below the levels established by a 2007 government-commissioned study that said SmartCity should employ about 2,800 people by 2011.

Dr Muscat pointed out that students who were looking forward to working at SmartCity were suffering from this “bureaucratic irresponsibility”.

Turning to education, he criticised the government for “playing with people’s lives”. Dr Muscat said that a number of students found out this week – when the University had already started – that they were not accepted in the PGCE course, a one-year training course that allows student to take up teaching. This was “unacceptable” and boiled down to lack of planning and bureaucracy. He pointed out that there was a similar problem with the BEd course where, up till a few days before the course started, students had no idea whether or not they would accepted.

Although the government had invested a lot in education, more efforts were needed in particular areas, especially in dropping the rate of children who stopped studying at 16. “Four out of 10 students don’t continue studying after secondary school. We believe this number has to be reduced drastically,” he said. One way of doing so was educating parents to encourage children to continue studying. “It is a vicious circle because these parents say they can’t afford to let their children continue studying. But they must be convinced that the way forward is that children don’t stop at 16,” Dr Muscat said.

He criticised what he termed as a “systematic intimidation campaign” against and the “character assassination” of a University student who, last week, criticised Transport Minister Austin Gatt for the chaotic bus service. It was “unacceptable” that a government official took the student’s details “as though we lived in a fascist state”, he said. The Nationalist Party’s youth section pointed out that, unlike when Labour was in government, students were given a stipend and had a wider choice of courses that increased every year.

The Education Ministry pointed out that post-secondary and tertiary education had the highest number of students in the country’s history.

The Infrastructure Ministry said Dr Muscat ignored the fact that the SmartCity project was ahead of schedule. The delay in removing the old pumping station did not hold back the fast pace at which the project was moving or the government’s commitment, the ministry said.

The ministry said Dr Muscat should be careful not to believe the lies fed by the Labour Party’s media about comments on a University student’s outburst. The government listened to and took action, as far as its responsibility allowed, on complaints and, in fact, had updated the transport routes, the ministry added.