Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said this morning that the country expected a reaction from the prime minister to a call by The Sunday Times for the Gozo Minister to resign in the wake of the controversy which saw a ferry being recalled to harbour to pick up passengers, including the minister himself.

Speaking at a political conference in Zebbug, Dr Busuttil hit out at falling standards of governance.

The government, he said, lacked moral fibre and had lost the sense of shame.

The energy minister, he said, had been found to have 'lied' when he claimed that his wife was engaged as a Malta Enterprise envoy for €33,000. It had resulted that her package, including a €33,000 salary and allowances, would reach €155,000. This was a person who was engaged without a call for applications. At €3,000 a week, this was six times more than the €500 which Labour used to accuse former ministers of taking in the last legislature.

And then this government found no money for out of stock medicines.

'Shame on you, minister," Dr Busuttil said, repeating the phrase which Konrad Mizzi himself used to say before the general election.

He said the government and its ministers were repeatedly blaming civil servants for their mistakes.

Another example was how, after a man was wrongly accused of a hold-up, it was the inspector who arraigned the right person who was investigated and cast in a bad light.

Similarly, a civil servant had been blamed after students on revisionary 'O' level courses were told they would no longer be eligible for stipends.

Gozo Minister Anton Refalo had also blamed others for the Gozo ferry controversy, Dr Busuttil observed. It had also resulted that the minister phoned his canvasser, not the Gozo Channel duty officer. He phoned the devil, Dr Busuttil' said, referring to the canvasser's nickname Ix-Xitan.

One also needed to remember the doubts and questions raised about the ministerial declaration of assets.

There were also serious developments in the way how promotions were awarded in the AFM.

In his address Dr Busuttil hit out at the government for trying to ‘gag’ the opposition in Parliament. The opposition, he said, would not be intimidated and the ruling given by the Speaker would be contested in the House, the local courts and if necessary, the European Court for Human rights.

The issue arose over the opposition argued that there was political interference in the John Dalli investigation. This was motivated by the evidence in court by former Police Commissioner John Rizzo, who had said that there was a case to arraign Mr Dalli in court, at the Attorney General agreed with him. Mr Rizzo had also said that he had no political interference from the PN administration of that time.

Once the government changed, the Commissioner was removed and replaced by someone who was close to the Labour Party.

The people who were investigating the case - Anglu Gafa and Michael Cassar - were removed. Coincidentally in those days, Mr Dalli, who was sick abroad, returned to Malta. The government even made Mr Dalli one of its consultants.

These were serious matters and the government has to respect the people’s intelligence. The commissioner should not stop the course of justice in this way. It would have been better to let the courts decide instead of him deciding.