Investigating authorities should be free to investigate a person suspected of abuse without any political influence arising from that person’s position within a political party, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said this morning.
“We want highest standards of responsibility and the PN is not ready to compromise with those who are not willing to meet party standards,” he said.
Speaking during a radio interview, Dr Gonzi referred to the recent saga which surrounded the Sliema council, where the former mayor admitted he had asked for a commission but later claimed he was coerced into signing a statement while suffering from a panic attack.
Mr Dimech resigned from the Nationalist Party after he was dismissed because he refused to resign from the council and has since been replaced by Johanna Gonzi following a motion of no confidence moved by the other councillors in the locality.
The Prime Minister said that irrelevant of whether a person was innocent or guilty, everyone in public life had to be transparent and accountable so there were strict regulations which had to be followed.
This government, he said, had renewed councils through a reform which saw executive secretaries become answerable to a government department rather than to the council.
The experience of the past weeks had shown that the reform was working and certain investigations were initiated by the Internal Audit Division and the police.
As for the situation in Sliema, Dr Gonzi said it was not his or anyone else’s duty to judge.
But in this particular case a person had admitted to bribery in a statement and irrelevant of whether he was guilty or not, a party mechanism came into effect requesting the person concerned to resign so that investigations could be concluded.
This was not done and person had to be dismissed. The PN, Dr Gonzi said, expected its representatives to act in the legally and ethically correct manner without judging whether or not there was blame.
The same could not be said for the PL, he said, which decided that its representatives should support the Sliema mayor by abstaining in a vote of no confidence when, according to law, a clear vote in favour of the motion was needed.
Dr Gonzi said that he gave the party’s general secretary his full backing in all the decisions he had taken.
The Prime Minister said that he did not agree that what was happening was proving that it was disadvantageous to have political parties involved in councils.
It was thanks to parties’ participation that enough candidates were found, campaigns were held and manifestos were drawn up. Parties participated in local elections everywhere in the world, he said.
Asked about Libya’s request for €5 billion a year to control illegal migration to Europe, the Prime Minister said that less immigrants arrived in Malta this summer because the Libyan government was controlling its coast better and more people were being saved from drowning.
This development took place thanks to the intervention of the Italian government proving that a negotiated agreement could give results.
In this context, Dr Gonzi said, the position of the Maltese government was clear. The EU should negotiate with the Libyan government and Malta willing to help negotiate an agreement that both Libya and the EU would be happy with.
Libya should be helped to control those using it to cross over to Europe. The amount of money had to be negotiated and it had to be reasonable.
Dr Gonzi said that during his visit to Libya last week for the country’s annual celebrations of the anniversary of the revolution he had a meeting with Libyan leader Muammar met Gaddafi and also attended the 5 + 5 meeting during which he repeated his invitation for a heads of government meeting to be held in Malta. His invitation was accepted and this meeting’s agenda was to include illegal migration, protection of the Mediterranean sea, energy and security.