The Lija council said today it cannot implement a Local Governance Board decision to immediately terminate the services of a consultant and private contractor because it had already done so some months ago.

Investigating complaints by PL council member Marc Sant, the board had decided the council had been using the services in breach of public procurement rules.

Dr Sant complained about the use of consultant Chris Pullicino, who received €4,130 for services rendered on four occasions.

He also complained that Waste Collection Limited was paid over €7,000 over more than a year to provide water bowser services when the council had its own source of water that could not be used for a while because of damage caused during road resurfacing works.

In a statement this afternoon, Dr Sant accused the council of trying to take people for a ride whilst being extremely economical with the truth.

He said that during the last council meeting on January 20, the three Nationalist councillors voted in favour of paying the private contractor €306.80 for a “weekly water bowser in respect of November 2014” and €306.80 for a “weekly water bowser in respect of December 2014”.

Dr Sant said that the services of the consultant were no longer used because they are not currently needed.

However, during the January 20 council meeting, the councillors approved the payment of €318 to this consultant for the “drafting of adjudication reports”.

The council, he said, would be better off if it agreed to ask the competent authorities to take effective action against those legally responsible to ensure that the financial procurement regulations were abided by and that public funds were made use of wisely and judiciously.