In his column of December 17, Minister George Pullicino tried to defend himself as best can against the Auditor General’s serious accusations against Wasteserv – a 100 per cent government-funded organisation that falls under his direct political responsibility.

As for the Wasteserv saga, common sense dictates that the Auditor-General’s conclusions must inevitably carry more weight than the apologetic remarks of the Ministry of Resources and Rural Affairs or Wasteserv itself. Or even the minister concerned.

On page 297 of the National Audit Office (NAO) Report, the Auditor General makes it clear that in spite of the changes to the security firm contract, not only were there substantial changes to what was approved by the Ministry of Finance but, even worse, that the approval of these changes by the Director-General (Budget Affairs) was not sought and neither was the latter updated with the respective changes. All this when the changes pushed up the expenditure from €1 million to over €29 million.

This is one of the main reasons why the Auditor General has shown such deep and serious concern about the financial management of Wasteserv, particularly as far as its capital and recurrent expenditure is concerned.

Had it been satisfied, there would have been no point for the NAO to intensify further its investigations into the whole modus operandi of Wasteserv, as it has done.

So much I can confirm since I have already testified in front of the NAO.