Opposition leader Simon Busuttil this morning backed calls by Labour MP Marlene Farrugia for the Auditor General to involve himself in the power station contract after the departure of lead contractor Gasol.

Dr Farrugia made her appeal in a Facebook comment.

Speaking on Radio 101, Dr Busuttil said that ordinarily, government tenders were dropped when the companies they were awarded to changed, or their composition was changed. 

In this case, Gasol had had financial problems and in one way or another left the Electrogas consortium.

This whole matter raised issues of how due diligence was made before the contract was awarded. Was this country being run by amateurs or professionals? This was a €400 million contract and the government was acting like nothing was happening.

The government was continuing to be stubborn in going ahead with a power station which the country did not need. The government had said it would build the power station in order to reduce the tariffs. But once the tariffs had been reduced, what was the need for the power station? Clearly, this was the time for the government to reconsider.

Earlier, Dr Busuttil hit out at the government for not opening the doors of opportunity to all but only those close to it.

Dr Busuttil said the government elected on the promise of Malta Taghna Lkoll was showing that it was anything but.

Parents wondered what opportunities were open for their children while at the same time they saw a minister's wife getting €13,000 a month for a post for which she was clearly unfit for purpose.

And the 18-year-old nephew of the chief of staff of minister Chris Cardona was made secretary of a government company.

Because of the government's decisions, ordinary taxpayers were suffering a triple wammy. They were not getting the opportunities they should be entitled for, they were paying the salaries of the government appointees and they were paying for their bad service.

In two years, he said, the Muscat government had become the most corrupt government since the Mintoff-Lorry Sant days.

Today's newspaper headlines were an indictment of the government.  The Sunday Times of Malta was reporting a new scandal involving conflict of interest by Michael Falzon, The Malta Independent was reporting infighting in BOV, which had been reduced to a Labour club, and MaltaToday spoke on the links between the Gaffarena family and Ray Zammit, who still had a senior position within the administration, and one of his sons, a former police inspector.

And then Illum had a big picture of minister Cardona with the heading that he never touched drugs, the sort of heading, Dr Busuttil pointedly said, which reminded him of Bill Clinton.

Dr Busuttil said he could not understand how Parliamentary Secretary Falzon was still in his post. He was sinking deeper in mud and should have stepped down from his post a long time ago. It had now been found that he was involved in the Gaffarena Old Mint Street expropriation case, he had negotiated a unique early retirement package with Bank of Valletta giving him €266,000 with the right to return, and now it was shown that he was involved in conflict of interest, having negotiated with BOV as parliamentary secretary on the extension of the lease of the chairman's office at the House of Four Winds while at the same time negotiating his retirement package with the same bank.

Dr Falzon should have had the dignity to bow to the inevitable a long time ago, Dr Busuttil said.  

 

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