PN leader Simon Busuttil should shoulder responsibility if former Minister Austin Gatt keeps refusing to speak on the oil procurement scandal, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning.
Replying to questions by Dorothy Falzon on One Radio, Dr Muscat said that the fact that Dr Gatt was no longer in Parliament did not exclude him from accountability.
Dr Muscat said that as he had replied on matters which had taken place in the 1980s, because that was his responsibility as leader and so should Dr Busuttil.
The former ministers should also shoulder the political inheritance Dr Gatt left behind even in view of the fact that they had defended him when a motion of no confidence had been moved against him.
Dr Muscat praised Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi’s initiative to request the police commissioner to investigate.
“We are expecting the police to bring people to justice, because the country cannot allow people to make a mess of the people’s money and it’s as if nothing happened.
“People should be accountable for their actions,” he said.
Dr Muscat insisted that the government was committed to continue coming up with initiatives that would create employment. Such initiatives included the calls for expressions of interest issued in several sectors in the past weeks.
The Prime Minister warned companies trying to find new loopholes to keep employing people in a precarious manner that they should be careful because they were playing with fire.
“Whatever loopholes are found, we will close them…. Workers have to get what they deserve. We cannot just remove existing contracts but we will be extremely careful with new ones,” he said.
On migration, the Prime Minister said that his government had managed to get Europe to move on the matter and meetings with other affected countries such as Italy, Libya and Greece would lead to a solution.
He said that the Opposition had painted him as a killer, when all that the government said was that all action was being considered.
He noted that the European Court of Human Rights this week found Malta guilty of breaching fundamental human rights. This was at the time when those people who had pointed fingers at the government had been leading the country.
Turning to bureaucracy, he said that this could not be justified and that was why the government was working on a holistic reform to simplify processes.
“Let’s not fall into this trap of justifying the status quo,” he said.
He praised the commissioner appointed for the purpose, Michael Falzon, who he described as a focused and methodical workhorse who would not accept banal excuses. “He is willing to listen but able to take decisions.”
The more bureaucracy there is, the less accountability, Dr Muscat said.
On the government’s plan to reduce water and electricity tariffs, Dr Muscat said this plan was on track and bills will go down next March for families and a year later for businesses, in spite of the Opposition's hindrance.
The implementation of the project was now taken for granted, he said.