The government was this evening urged to clamp down on a ‘racket’ with regard to services offered at the Addolorata Cemetery and also to give a much-needed clean-up to the place before November, the month of the dead.

Speaking in Parliament on the adjournment, the shadow minister for health, Claudette Buttigieg, said there were shocking goings-on at the cemetery which she did not feel comfortable to reveal. However she would be informing the minister.

She also said that a senior health inspector had been abusively digging and selling graves himself. He was stopped a few months ago but no disciplinary action was taken against him.

There was also a racket in the way people were being charged money for graves to be cleaned. When people did not pay up, coffins were being placed on old coffins which should have been removed.

No receipts were ever given when payments were made.

This abuse was also going in other cemeteries, such as at Rabat, by workers from the Addolorata who were charging €185 to clean graves.

“This racket in one of the most sacred places in the country cannot be tolerated,” Ms Buttigieg said, adding that there was ‘anarchy’ and a lack of dignity and respect. This was going on in the full knowledge of the director.

She had even learned, she said, that an old tomb tomb had been dismantled and parts of it had been sold.

It was also disgraceful, Ms Buttigieg said, that a social event had been considered for the Addolorata. Happily, it had been called off, but it was sad that it was even considered.  

Concluding, Ms Buttigieg said the upkeep of the Addolorata was a disgrace. Trees which were uprooted by a storm years ago had still not been removed. Paving stones had been dislodged and posed a danger.

She hoped that the cemetery would be given a general clean-up before November, the month of the dead, arrived.