Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this morning appealed to anyone having information on wrongdoings involving the Land Department to come forward, even under the protection of the Whistleblower Act.

He said the government wanted to get to the bottom of the Old Mint Street expropriation case but it also wanted to see the whole context and what had been going on over the years, under whichever government. It would therefore investigate allegations involving any cases, whenever they happened, under whichever government.

At the same time, planned changes changes in the procedures at the department would be speeded up.

The government, he said, would not tolerate anyone enriching himself to the detriment of the government.

Dr Muscat reiterated that all reports on investigations into the Old Mint Street expropriation would be published. If wrongdoing was shown, he would do everything in his power to stop the deal.

Dr Muscat noted that when his intention to stop the deal was mentioned, shadow minister Jason Azzopardi had said (in The Sunday Times of Malta) that this would be unprecedented. This, Dr Muscat said was a positive certificate for the government. It showed that it did differently from the past, when no such action was taken despite allegations made. 

WEB OF SPIES

Speaking on One Radio this morning, Dr Muscat also noted that it had been revealed that a number of people in various financial institutions, had been leaking information to the Opposition even before the information was received by the government.

These people, he said, thought the government had not known what was going on. They had grown over-confident and been caught red handed.

The government would not accept situations where it was undermined by people interested only in partisan matters. These people, therefore, would have to assume their responsibilities, as would the opposition.

Dr Muscat was referring to a report in It-Torca which said that a number of people, which it described as 'spies' in key positions within financial institutions, had been leaking information to Tonio Fenech while he was shadow minister for finance. They reportedly even set up a google group called Finance Shadow Group.

FAST ECONOMIC GROWTH

Earlier, Dr Muscat hailed figures issued last week showing that the Maltese economy grew by 4% in the first quarter of this year.

The economy, he said had grown four times faster than the EU average. This was not a coincidence, but the fruit of government decisions which encouraged investment and job creation.

The government, he said, would work even harder to cut down employment, reduce the number of those at risk of poverty and stamp out precarious working conditions.

The government, he said, had a number of priorities ahead, including the unexpected repair work needed at Mater Dei Hospital which would cost €35 million. One of the important long-term projects was pension reform.

The government had been presented with a report by the Pensions Working Group. A presentation had also been made by the group to the opposition and the church. The reform would however have two red lines – no raising of the retirement age and no raising of social security contributions.

However pensions needed to be more sustainable and, among other things, pensions had to be available to women who had worked limitedly, such as for those who had two part-time jobs but only paid contributions on one and ended up with a miserable pension.

The government would consider the views of all concerned before taking the final decisions.