One Nationalist speaker after another this evening tore into the government’s “Simplication of Measures Report 2014” with party deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami declaring in Parliament that while the publication appeared positive, in practice no measures had been taken for more accountability and transparency.

Speaking during the discussion in parliament on the report, he said that in Gozo, one measure had been taken, whereby the subsidy for Gozitan students would go into the same account as their stipend. “The world will never be the same”, he said drily.

Not a single measure had been taken for the Police and Armed Forces.

The Lands Registry, he said, was in complete disarray. To buy a property one needed a Lands Registry certificate which was impossible to get on time.

Dr Fenech Adami said this government was using doublespeak. As far as passports went, those whose document expired between April and August would now have to pay €100 as against the €70 paid by those whose passport expired between September and May. “This was not efficiency,” he said, adding that “the government had simply raised the fee”.

The biggest decision for simplification by Environment Minister Leo Brincat was the installation of an answering machine in the nursery at St Vincent de Paule, Dr Fenech Adami said.

He also criticized Health Minister Konrad Mizzi for not having done anything to improve the health sector, except for the increase in the number of aerobics and weight loss classes.

These were laughable measures, Dr Fenech Adami said. This was a symptom of the general decadence of this government. 

Removing bureaucracy did not mean the removal of procedures, as had happened within the Armed Forces which he, Dr Fenech Adami said, was now shadowing.

Under former Minister Manuel Mallia, AFM personnel had been given promotions without a call for applications and others had been transferred for no reason. He appealed to the new Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela to rectify the irreparable damage which had been caused in the last two years.