The banner behind Parliamentary Secretary Roderick Galdes at a press conference he held recently read “Four years of firsts”. Let’s go through some of the many ‘firsts’.
The first-time ever in Maltese political history that a serving minister set up a company in Panama, a trust in New Zealand and tried to open a bank account in which a minimum €1 million a year would have had to be deposited.
The first time a Prime Minister paid €4 million from public funds to an insolvent entrepreneur to repossess the government-owned Café Premier in Valletta.
The first time a Prime Minister acted as a salesman to sell Maltese citizenship to affluent foreigners to provide them with access to the EU and other countries.
The first time the government paid €1.65 million in cash and transferred public land for half ownership of a property in Valletta an investor had bought for a fraction of the price just weeks earlier.
The first time the government gave a historical building in Cottonera and a sizeable piece of ODZ land in Marsascala for peanuts to a Jordanian investor to open an ‘American university’.
The first time the government granted the services concession for the redevelopment, maintenance, management and operation of the sites at Gozo General, St Luke’s and Karin Grech Rehabilitation hospitals to an organisation with no experience in the field and whose eventual ownership is shrouded in mystery.
The first time that two serving ministers allegedly altered the course of justice in a drug-related case in Gozo.
The first time the Maltese islands had five different commissioners of police in four years.
The first time a minister employed 150 fitters, all from the same electoral district, at the Water Services Corporation.
The first time backbenchers were paid more than €256,000 per annum in addition to their salaries as MPs for chairing committees and acting as ministerial consultants.
The first time hundreds of people without the necessary qualifications or aptitudes were employed with government entities in positions of trust.
This government taught me there is a first for everything.