The government and the Labour Party have continued to use a number of illegal billboards across the island’s main road network, despite assurances by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat that the situation will be rectified.

The Sunday Times of Malta is informed that Mepa has continued to issue enforcement orders against the private company owning the billboards but has not removed the illegal structures.

At the same time, sources close to Mepa told this newspaper that the government is now planning a review of the rules regulating billboards but will only announce it after the European elections.

The billboards are the property of a joint venture, known as Aiken Services Ltd, which built and supplied the structures, together with the necessary artwork, for the Labour Party free of charge during the general election campaign.

Firm has had more than €1m turnover

Ninety have been placed in key locations across the road network and were used to portray Labour’s message before March last year.

However, they remained in place afterwards, even though they were supposed to be dismantled within a few weeks.

Despite being illegal, and in some cases dangerous due to their positioning on public pavements and crucial road intersections, the private company started hiring the billboards for commercial purposes at a rate of more than €1,000 a month each.

Sources in the billboard industry told this newspaper that this indicated a private-partnership deal between Labour and businessmen involved in the firm.

“We have calculated that until now, the company owning the illegal billboards has had a turnover of more than €1 million from commercial sales of advertising space.

“To add insult to injury, the Labour government has been hiring these illegal structures to market its policies using taxpayers’ money and indirectly funding the illegal billboards,” the sources said.

Three weeks ago Dr Muscat admitted the government was using illegal billboards for its marketing campaigns but shifted the blame on the contractor, even though the law clearly states that the advertiser is legally responsible together with the owner of the billboard for any illegality.

Grilled on the subject on Friday, Transport Minister Joe Mizzi said he did not know which billboards were illegal and that the government was paying for their use.

Mr Mizzi justified the issue by saying that illegal billboards have been around for a long time. At the same time he promised the situation will be rectified shortly.