The perception of corruption in Malta has gone up only because all reports are being investigated, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said this morning.

Speaking during a dialogue with young people Dr Gonzi said that perception did not mean corruption.

But whenever a case was investigated, people assumed corruption.

Dr Gonzi was asked by Peppi Azzopardi, who was directing the discussion, whether it was true that a company which had been found guilty of VAT corruption had been given a government contract.

Mr Azzopardi asked if this company was supposed to be blacklisted and if it was fair for a company which at one point broke the law to be blacklisted for good.

Replying, Dr Gonzi said he still had to verify the statement, made by the Opposition leader yesterday, that a company found guilty of corruption was given a new contract.

This was because individuals and not companies were arraigned in court. However, the Prime Minister said he agreed there should be blacklisting.

“We want honest businesses and taxes to be paid by all and not theft.”

“Businesses that steal the VAT paid by the people should be blacklisted for good for breaching the confidence with which they are trusted. The message that abuse is not acceptable has to be clear,” the Prime Minister said.

However, he also appealed for politicians to be honest.

The power station extension, for example, was a matter that the Auditor General investigated for 11 months and had the AG found anything that annulled the process, he would have said so.

The AG had studied the contract sentence by sentence and the government’s problem with publishing it was a confidentiality clause.

If BWSC – the company winning the tender, authorised its publication, the government would publish the contract immediately.

Dr Gonzi said the AG had concluded that the process could continue but said that certain matters had to be seen to. The government would be seeing to all these matters, the Prime Minister said.

A refugee who has been living in Malta for the past six years told Dr Gonzi that he sometimes experienced discrimination because of his skin colour.

Dr Gonzi assured the young man that not all Maltese were racist and the majority respected everyone, irrelevant of their skin colour.

Malta, he said, managed to progress because over the years it respected and listened to everyone while retaining its principles.

He understood that immigration was a serious problem and Europe had to understand that Malta was the first stop for people who wanted to go to the mainland.

So Malta was facing Europe’s problem and expected Europe’s assistance.