Labour leader Joseph Muscat today slammed the government for a series of planning and management failures ranging from traffic management to planning authority fees.
Describing the government's year as an "annus horribilis", he said the only thing that seemed to work like clockwork was the €500 weekly salary increase of ministers.
Slamming the new bus system, Dr Muscat said the whole issue portrayed Minister Austin Gatt at his most arrogant.
After coming up with the inadequate bus routes which will now have to be revised, and introducing the service with much pomp as his initiative, Dr Gatt blamed the public for not participating more actively in the public consultation process beforehand.
"This is the same minister who, after the public said yes to divorce, still voted no in parliament," Dr Muscat quipped.
He promised the Labour government would prioritise traffic management, which was also suffering under the Nationalist government.
In the peak of the tourist season, crucial roads were being closed for maintenance including the road to the Airport and the road to Cirkewwa (which is the link to Gozo). Meanwhile, poor management was also being seen in the maintenance of other roads, where on Thursday, a main road was closed at rush hour, causing lots of unnecessary traffic.
Dr Muscat also complained about the planning authority having tried to scrounge money from its customers by charging them hundreds of euro for "photocopies".
The charge was eventually withdrawn after Labour party spokesman Roderick Galdes complained about the "illegal charges".
Dr Muscat compared this case to when the water and electricity billing company Arms Limited "illegally" fined customers for allegedly defaulting – a fine that was later refunded after pressure by the Labour Party.
He said the photocopy costs were symptomatic of the government's need to find ways of funding Mepa after removing subsidies from the authority.
The Mepa reform, he said, left Mepa with more costs and more expensive employees, while the public faced heftier charges. No one was being served any better, and the people responsible were Mepa chairman Austin Walker, parliamentary secretary Mario De Marco and the Prime Minister, who is the minister responsible for Mepa.
Meanwhile, the government had still not reacted to a report in the press about traffic fine money going to contractors rather than to local councils. He said he would bring the matter up once Parliament reconvenes, to ensure transparency.
Dr Muscat said the government also failed its people by taking decades to enact a law about access to lawyers during interrogation. As a result, many suspected criminals are being freed "on a technicality", even if the cases against them is extremely strong.
He said the government was also failing to ensure public order in places inundated by young tourists, including Swieqi and its surroundings.
Dr Muscat also praised his party's team working on perfecting the divorce law, saying the Labour Party had shown that it knows how to show direction and come up with solutions that work rather than problems.