The news that the Nationalist Party has substantial financial problems immediately elicited predictable comment. They fought the election on the slogan ‘Sound Finances’ and, look, they couldn’t even keep their house in order. That’s how politics and popular reaction go. It would be a pity if they stop there.

At immediate notice there is the fact that scores of workers have not been paid their wages and salaries for March. Hopefully, they will be paid by the end of March. Furthermore they have been told that the party will inevitably have to go for restructuring.

That is diplomatic speak, for the party will have to trim its workforce in the administration and its media, making an unidentified number of workers redundant. The loss of every single job is a human tragedy. Generally, workers depend on their job income to pay for their living expenses. They might own or are in the process of paying for their residence. Yet once their job income stops, they are in serious trouble. They do not tend to have much reserves – savings – to fall back upon.

Hopefully, workers made redundant in the Nationalist Party restructuring will soon find alternative employment. It would not have been that difficult had the party won the general election. Now that it has lost, and done so with a margin that signals another defeat five years down the line, it will not be easy at all.

The party might not be able to find alternative employment for those affected by the downsizing. Largely so, they will have to fend for themselves. Some weekend reports suggested that the PN finances have been weakening for years. If that is the case, one wonders why the party leadership did not do something about it in due time, given that they surely were in the know.

That failure lends weight to the criticism that the leadership was too busy operating on the grand stage, rather than simultaneously reaching out to people. It forgot its own inner core, let alone the rest of the population, some/many of whom have individual needs that they expect politicians to help them meet.

The irony is that, even on the big stage, the Nationalist Government did not put in place finances as sound as they made them out to be during the electoral campaign. The new Labour Government has undertaken to put forward the 2013 Budget – essentially the estimates of expenditure – as prepared and presented by the outgoing Nationalist Government. The only change is expected to be legislation to take minimum wage earners out of the tax net where the otherwise occupied Government left them enmeshed.

That may be so. I would be surprised, however, if the Finance Minister did not take the opportunity at least to outline the fact that the fiscal reality is not what the Nationalist budget made it out to be.

On the revenue side, there are over-estimates that cannot be explained by fiscal drag – automatic increases in, say, income tax arising out of the statutory cost-of-living increase.

On the expenditure side, there are understatements. Inkling was given by the Energy Minister who said that the interconnector with Sicily will cost substantially more than budgeted. Then there are gaps in outlays. For instance, a social capital project is covered on the capital side but no provision is in place for running expenses, not even to water the plants embellishing the site.

Aside from the Finance Minister, each minister and parliamentary secretary will probably have a story to tell. It should be told flatly and factually. The telling will be part of the political game, of course. Yet it will not be simply partisan politics.

The people should know what the real financial situation is. They should know as the story unfolds, not have it sprung upon them as a nasty surprise.