The Mosta local council last night came in for a hiding from Local Government Minister Owen Bonnici for having potentially misled the House on a report on the state of roads in the locality.

The report had been written by none other than a civil engineering company owned by the mayor and her husband.

Answering a question by Labour MP Anthony Agius Decelis, Dr Bonnici said he considered what had happened as “serious”.

Mr Agius Decelis had asked the minister for a 2012 report on the state of roads in Mosta.

The Department of Local Government had asked the council for the relevant information and the council had replied that the last report it had dated back to February 2009. The council suggested that the MP ask the ministry involved for a more recent report.

This had raised doubts in Dr Bonnici and his ministry and they suspected there was something amiss.

The ministry’s insistence had led to the Department of Local Government looking up its own internal files and locating a copy of the 2012 report.

Dr Bonnici said that the situation had continued to evolve when a local paper carried an article, followed by the appearance of another article on an electronic medium, that the 2012 report in fact existed.

It had actually been written by a civil engineering firm owned by the Mosta mayor and her husband.

The council’s acting executive secretary had confirmed to the Director of Local Government that the report had not been located at the local council.

Dr Bonnici made it clear that he was not at all happy with the council’s actions, which had obviously, but unsuccessfully, tried to play with semantics, potentially misleading the House because the 2012 report would not have been tabled.

He left it up to Mr Agius Decelis to conclude if what had happened was worthy of a council which should respect the values of transparency and good governance.

“I am very disappointed by the way this House has been treated by [Mosta] local council,” concluded Dr Bonnici.

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