Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil criticised Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s decision to offer an amnesty to consumers who paid to have their electricity meters tampered with.
Such customers broke the law on two counts: electricity theft and bribing an Enemalta official to rig their smart meter. “Dr Muscat wants to give these people an amnesty. He used to say he had zero tolerance of corruption but it’s more like 100 per cent tolerance,” Dr Busuttil said.
Speaking at a political meeting in Marsaxlokk, Dr Busuttil said there was a clear difference between the two political parties.
At the first instance of “clear corruption”, Dr Muscat decided to offer an amnesty. “Does he have no shame? It is a complete lack of seriousness,” he said.
When the Nationalist Party was in government, it always took action against people involved in corruption, including judges.
“This government only speaks about corruption. You know what they say: those who don’t fight corruption are corrupt themselves,” he said to loud applause.
He described Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit as a “puppet” who allowed Dr Muscat to interfere in his work when he was bound by law to take action against all those involved in bribery.
Turning to the controversial issue of the storage of gas for the new power station in Marsaxlokk, Dr Busuttil said the Opposition was insisting the government placed the floating storage facility outside the bay. This is what Marsaxlokk and Birżebbuġa residents, who were worried about having the gas so close to shore, would prefer, he noted. The government should “avoid risks” or eliminate them and listen to the residents’ concern.
Dr Busuttil pointed out that in Livorno, Italy, the government had decided to anchor a ship laden with gas about 22 kilometres from shore for safety reasons.
Branding the insistence on anchoring the storage ship inside the bay as “very irresponsible”, Dr Busuttil appealed to the government to eliminate the risk and said the Opposition would continue pushing on the issue because it was “unacceptable”.
He referred to the launch of the biography of former President and prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami – Eddie: My Journey , published by Allied Publications – saying it was a “memorable occasion”. The PN too had to start a new journey looking ahead to the future and offer direction, proposals and solutions.
Reacting to Dr Busuttil’s comments, the Labour Party said the Nationalist government had failed to fight corruption and the Auditor General had himself drawn attention to the electricity theft in Enemalta. Nothing was ever done by the PN to fight corruption, it said.