The Gozo Ministry’s decision to spend €400,000 on the purchase of a Preti painting for the Gozo Museum showed a distorted sense of priorities and raised questions on who authorised this financial outlay, the shadow minister for Gozo, Chris Said, said in parliament this evening.
Speaking on the adjournment, Dr Said said the biggest question was how the ministry had bought this painting for the museum when the museum was the responsibility of Heritage Malta, not the ministry’s. Heritage Malta had actually advised against the purchase.
Dr Said observed that the Gozo Ministry in its budget only had €50,000 allocated for the procurement of works of art, yet it was spending eight times as much. Where was the money coming from? Which areas had this money been taken away from. Had the finance ministry authorised this outlay?
However fine this painting was, there was no doubt that this money could have been better spent elsewhere, Dr Said said.
Better use of those funds could have been made on the upkeep of roads, which were in a terrible state, or on the maintenance of historic buildings which were in a poor state, such as Ta’ Gordan lighthouse.
That money could have been used on the promised breakwater at Marsalforn or to help business start-ups and thus create jobs in Gozo.
This was not the first example of wrong priorities in Gozo. Another example was how a flight of stairs from St Francis Square to the terminus would cost €3 million.
In other comments Dr Said said the government had not kept its electoral promises on Gozo.
Not only had the tunnel or bridge not come about, but neither had the fast ferry service or the air service.
Labour had also promised a casino, a yacht marina, and a cruise terminal, which had not come about. There was no new social housing and the number of university courses in Gozo had actually gone down.
There were reports, now, that the fast ferry service would be introduced in 2018, but was it true that the fare would be €4 for the Gozitans, that no cars would be carried, and that the service would operate to Liesse in Grand Harbour? How would Gozitans go to work, then?
Dr Said said that what little road works had been carried out lacked professionalism, and the minister, when asked in parliament, had been unable to produce quality certificates. Indeed, it was only now that workers were being seen lifting road samples for testing.
Dr Said expressed concern over plans to set up a reverse osmosis plant in the long disused water desalination plant in Ħondoq. Would water discharge affect sea water quality nearby? In Malta, all RO plants had been built away from popular beaches, he observed.
Furthermore, Dr Muscat had promised to convert the old desalination plant building into a sports centre. That too was a promise that was not kept, Dr Said said.