In his first public pre-Budget meeting, the Minister of Finance denied the number of employees in the public sector had increased, even though, a few weeks earlier, the Minister for Education and Employment said the opposite.
Let us bear in mind that the Finance Minister had promised to reduce the number of employees in the public sector by 500, yet, on the contrary, the number grew fourfold: a staggering net increase of 2,042 employees.
When one considers that normally about 1,500 public sector employees retire, in a year and a few months this government has engaged more than 3,600 people.
When comparing the number of public sector employees with that in the private sector, the percentage is high, despite the administration’s year-on-year reductions.
Over-employment in the public sector is a burden on the economy and on the taxpayer, who has to pay for their salaries, apart from negatively affecting competitiveness.
The only overall beneficiary is the party in government that seeks to make further electoral gains through taxpayers’ money.
It is a simple statistical fact that public sector employment has increased, as reported by the NSO.
The minister was incorrect in his assertion. In defending the NSO and its integrity, the statistics office director general implied in comments to Times of Malta that the minister was mistaken in making such a public comment.
As reported by this newspaper, and he has not issued a correction so far, the minister stated categorically that public sector employment numbers had not increased, adding that what appeared to be a growth was the result of a reclassification of some public sector employees in the construction sector (who where within the public sector category anyway).
The minister simply tried to mislead the public and the media when finding himself significantly under pressure for not keeping to his word of cutting public sector employment by 500.
The touchy Finance Minister seems unable to handle bad news
To hide his own failings, the minister had the audacity to blame the NSO for not being clear in its reporting and, not for the first time, he criticised its workings.
This is not on. The NSO may be under his portfolio, but there is supposed to be a board whose task is to protect its independence precisely from people like the minister and myself who have an interest in the published results. I heard no such criticism from this same politician when in opposition. What has changed now?
This is not a trivial matter. Here we are talking of an expense to the tune of more than €40 million annually, depending on the grades, salary scales and allowances the employees in question enjoy.
That the minister tries to make believe there is no such impact is not some minor error but an attempt to hide from all of us the financial burdens this government is putting on this country to make further partisan political gains.
If the minister is not even able to defend his own assertions, then he should simply stop trying to fool the public, apologise and retract them.
Had the government kept to his commitment and, rather than increasing public sector employment by some 2,000 jobs, reduced it by 500, the unemployment figure would not be the present 5.8 per cent the government boasts about but would be closer to an alarming seven per cent.
When ETC job statistics were negative, reflecting higher unemployment, Edward Scicluna said these were irrelevant because they were not the real thermometer (even though the ETC register is a 100 per cent headcount of job seekers) and that we should rather look at the NSO statistics.
When the NSO statistics were negative, he attacked the NSO.
When the statistics of both are positive, there will be glowing government press statements, trumpets blaring, stating how satisfied the minister is with the figures.
The state of denial the government is already in with regard to the economic sector is worrying.
Retail is at an all-time low, there are worrying signs in the manufacturing sector and precarious employment and poverty, which this government promised to eradicate, are on the rise.
Also deeply worrying is the pressure being exerted on the statistics authority. Such attacks undermine the credibility and independence of the institution.
Feeling the heat, employees become fearful and cautious in an attempt to couch a negative economic result in such a way as not to irritate our touchy minister who seems unable to handle bad news.
The minister must keep his hands off the statistics authority.
Don’t mess with a country’s statistical credibility, which can have very serious long-term consequences, for sake of making short-term gain in order to save face.
Tonio Fenech is a Nationalist MP