The Roads Department has definitely always kept its place as the worst-kept infrastructure in this country. However, lately, it seems it is the Roads and Urban Development Minister's turn to steal the show. Allegations in Parliament that plans submitted in a planning application by a partner at the minister's professional office were false triggered a determined call for resignation by the opposition. But, inspite of oscillating between dismissal and resignation, the minister shamelessly sticks to his seat of power waiving responsibility by simply stating he hasn't got anything to do with it.
It is for this purpose that I decided to look at the minister's portfolio over the past 12 months or so. Who is Minister Jesmond Mugliett? Has he lived up to voters' expectations? Does he deserve our trust in whatever he represents? A panorama of the past year's achievements by the minister should give us a good idea of where he could have gone wrong, could have gone right or could have done better.
Apart from the usual delays in road works, sums don't seem to be the strong point of the minister either. Take, for example, the Tal-Barrani Road, Zejtun traffic lights which allegedly cost the ministry Lm15,667 more than the original estimates, finally amounting to Lm60,667.76.
This the minister himself declared in Parliament in answer to a question by PN whip and MP Mario Galea. And guess what the excuse for such discrepancy was? Well... according to the minister this was due to lack of agreement on the rates of payment which had been agreed to prior to the contract! After having "scrutinised" the agreements well, the situation was "solved" by the government agreeing to revise its estimates. Whether this is hard proof of a government used to rushing into agreements without knowing the contents and conditions thereof or whether it is hard evidence of Minister Mugliett giving in to the contractors I leave it up to readers to decide.
Another important aspect of such tender was that it was qualified as a simple departmental one and had to go through a summary procedure permissible only for projects of an expense up to Lm20,000! So was the applicable procedure to be based upon such miscalculation?
Another unproportional sum of Lm60,000 more than the estimated cost was spent on the Mdina Road project. Come to think of it, Lm66,200,000 is also the increase in government's deficit as from June last year. Number six does seem to hold some magical connection to a Nationalist government.
Moreover, the millions of liri owed to private citizens whose lands were expropriated years and years ago can also be attributed to Mr Mugliett. Such lists of creditors is an ever-increasing one; however the amount is not calculated in the government deficit as it is conveniently relieving it of parts thereof, which is tantamount to saying that foreign companies come first and Maltese citizens last.
This contrasts with the fact that the same minister accepted to pay Lm8,509 in mobile calls and Lm3,182 for calls from fixed lines for his 22 officials at the Malta Transport Authority in the first three months of this year. Another Lm6,722 of the authority's monies were devoted to travelling expenses incurred by the deputy CEO alone in the first three months of the year.
Another example of wrongly-summed, highly underestimated contracts was the light show forming part of the EU membership celebrations awarded to Where's Everybody. This was another case allegedly to be decided upon through a departmental tender procedure when the contract amounted to hundreds of thousands of liri. Over the last few days Where's Everybody was awarded another important contract (valued at Lm49,500 in all) for the opening ceremony of CHOGM.
A former professional colleague of Mr Mugliett, architect Robert Sant, has reportedly been given the responsibility of carrying out supervision on road works in Lot 1, amounting to Lm3,884,373. Here no conflict of interest is being discussed in any way by the government.
Architect Richard England had cashed in a sum of Lm70,000 for the Opera House designs as a millennium project. This idea having been scrapped, the same site was last year proposed as a new Parliament building. This was projected to cost some Lm16 million but the only pre-project monies to have been effectively transferred amid all the controversies were those due to plans by the same architect.
Another Lm26,000 was devoted to foreign consultants in their sacred mission of solving the bus fares' issue (which has still remained unsolved, by the way). The sum paid to the foreign consultants does come across as quite some pocket money when we consider the Lm2 million in subsidies that was promised to bus owners.
But perhaps, the cherry on the cake was to be chewed this week and it could result to be quite sticky. The police have initiated investigations, as directed by the Magistrates' Court, which found that plans submitted in an application by a partner at Sant and Mugliett, the minister's professional office, were false. Labour MP Joe Mizzi, who asked the PM to dismiss the minister, said he had raised the case in Parliament five years ago and the minister himself had at the time confirmed his involvement in the case.
No one has to be fed as to the onus probandi (burden of proof) in a court case. Yet, the minister slips indifferently away from any political shame fully supported by a yet politically and ethically indifferent PM, at least in the eyes of the public.
Tomorrow being yet another day, conclusions are never to be made. Delays in the carrying out of works, money miscalculations, over-paid consultants, accusations of conflict of interest, unkept promises, certificates of incompetence and serious allegations even in Parliament have all failed to make the dear minister blush let alone cede the seat.
All we should do is to be happy with our new roads... A lot of twisting and turning of truth itself keeps ministers glued to their seats, lifting them so divinely above condemnation and ordaining them with divine infallibility. As CHOGM nears we see roads opened one by one. Foreign companies and consortia come first, certain individuals come first, Commonwealth heads of state come first and we are to exult on the leftovers. We drive over potholes for a whole year until Her Majesty arrives, fully unaware of the citizens' long-lived sacrifice, while the minister gets the opportunity of shaking her hand. Shouldn't we at least grumble?
Floriana mayor Publio Agius has protested because a stretch of pavement which will remain unseen through the Commonwealth dignitaries' car windows was left unfinished, adding that he will personally write a letter to the PM. But shouldn't the mayors of Rabat, Mgarr, Siggiewi, Zebbug and elsewhere protest as well? Shouldn't localities badly hit by the closing of roads such as that of Mosta also protest? After all, shouldn't we all protest?
It is ironic that on these islands there is a Ramblers' Association but no Car Drivers' Association. What if we admitted the truth to ourselves and realised we've been treated so badly for so long? What if the Commonwealth dignitaries instead of just seeing the newly-made roads also witnessed some protesters with placards in hand? What if the Queen was sent some pictures of our roads as they stand today, three months before she steps on our island? What if she got the opportunity to see what mess the roads she was not driven through in Malta were in? What if she knew that after all our dear minister is trying to fool her as much as the Maltese citizens? What if she (and all other dignitaries of course) were given an opportunity to show solidarity?