The people are still waiting for Opposition leader Simon Busuttil to say what the whistleblower in Gozo’s 'works for votes' allegations told him two years ago, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici said this afternoon.
The claims were made by a contractor who alleged that he had carried out works for votes on instructions from the husband of former Gozo minister Giovanna Debono.
The allegations led to the arraignment yesterday of Mrs Debono’s husband Anthony, the resignation of the minister from the Nationalist Party and the stepping down of Chris Said from party general secretary to concentrate on Gozo.
Addressing a news conference this afternoon, Dr Bonnici asked why had Dr Busuttil not taken action about the claims before and said that the Opposition leader could not keep hiding.
Dr Bonnici said that Dr Busuttil was sorry that Mrs Debono had resigned and had tried to distance her from her husband. This, Dr Bonnici said, would have been understandable had the works not been related to the Gozo Ministry when Mrs Debono was minister, he said, asking why was Dr Busuttil not condemning the former minister.
Regarding Dr Busuttil's position on Dr Said, who had received an e-mail containing allegations of wrongdoing under the PN’s watch last May and failed to raise the alarm, Dr Bonnici said this was “a three-act comedy”.
If one were to believe the version that Dr Said was being promoted, this would mean that Dr Busuttil was blessing the person who had said that the allegations made did not imply abuse.
But the truth was, Dr Bonnici said, that this was being used to camouflage another local election defeat.
He said that had it not been for the Whistle Blower Act enacted by this government, this case, which had shocked the country, would have remained under wraps.
Asked why had the Labour government not taken action about similar cases under the watch of current minister Anton Refalo, Dr Bonnici said that had it not been for Dr Refalo to officially report what the whistleblower said, matters would have remained under the carpet.
Dr Refalo, he said, has already explained about the case and he was satisfied with his clear explanation.
'LAW NOT THE SAME FOR ALL' - PN
The Nationalist Party will be strongly fighting the government’s blatant breach of the principle that the law was equal for everyone, it said this evening.
It pointed out that while Mrs Debono’s husband was arraigned yesterday, the government did not seem to want an investigation on similar allegations in the past two years.
The PN said that Dr Busuttil had said more than a month ago that the whistle blower had not told him anything about the allegations in Gozo.
If there was someone who had anything to answer because they had the information but kept it to themselves, this was the Prime Minister who did not say anything before the electoral campaign and the Gozo Minister who knew about the case for several months but did not do anything about it.
The Prime Minister should also explain why he did not do anything when faced with cases of abuse of power including by former minister Manuel Mallia, ministers Konrad Mizzi, Joe Mizzi and Helena Dalli, parliamentary secretary Ian Borg and Labour MP Luciano Busuttil.