“A comedy of errors” is how the Opposition yesterday described Finance Minister Edward Scicluna’s criticism of its pre-Budget document, as the government and the PN took each other to task over comma use and the conventions of report naming.

“The minister in a press conference called to pinpoint mistakes by the Opposition only managed to make a series of errors that reflect badly on him and his ministry,” the PN said in a statement.

Prof. Scicluna last week called on the PN to withdraw its pre-Budget document, calling it “an exercise in amateurism”, misleading and full of mistakes.

The minister managed to make errors that reflect badly on him

In a point-by-point refutation, the PN said Prof. Scicluna’s first complaint, that the report was entitled ‘Pre-Budget Proposals 2015’ despite referring to the 2016 Budget, was baseless, as such reports often carried the year in which they were written.

Prof. Scicluna also accused the Opposition of having failed to include any statistics under one of the entries in a table of gross annual salaries. The PN said the entry ended with a comma, indicating the entry continued on the next line, where statistics appeared.

The party also said it had only provided 2014 data for female participation and exports, another of the minister’s complaints, because 2015 was not yet over.

The statement concluded: “[Prof. Scicluna] failed to comment on the proposals contained in the document, proposals aimed at improving the lives of all, not least those living in poverty or at risk of poverty.”