Familial and political connections were more important than meritocracy as long as the people who were favoured showed their obligations during elections, the opposition’s main spokesperson for Public Service and Gender Equality Helena Dalli told Parliament yesterday.

Listing a number of cases, she said that the power of incumbency played an important role in the last elections where a few votes tipped the scales in the election as a result of favours granted before the elections.

Earlier, Dr Dalli said the PN had been in government for more than 20 years but had failed to take steps to strengthen the institutions which fought corrupt practices.

It was not now that the government felt the need to introduce the Freedom of Information Act and the Whistleblower Act and to strengthen the Permanent Commission against Corruption. Although not in government the PL had last year made its own proposals on fighting corruption.

Local surveys and international reports had shown that corruption in Malta was on the increase. In reply to this, the government had last September embarked on a public relations exercise to give the impression that this was just a perception.

She referred to the power station extension contract and said that the Auditor General had said that he did not have conclusive evidence of corruption because certain people did not want to give information in the inquiry. He had remarked that the tender should have been withdrawn and reissued. Although the Commissioner of Police had much more authority than the Auditor General, he had failed to take action on the report. The foreign company which had won the BWSC contract had been blacklisted by the World Bank. This showed that the government was not really interested in fighting corruption. The taxpayers were paying for these practices.

Dr Dalli said the PL had already spoken of the need to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act. It was also important to enact a Bill on the financing of political parties.

She said there were hundreds of cases of corruption related to the licensing of vehicles and motorboats. Corruption was also present in the tendering of public contracts. There were people who knew of the so called “JS list” where persons could be awarded contracts as long as they contributed financially to the PN.

There were other cases of corruption where people were helped to get certain benefits to which they were not entitled to and others who were boarded out from public service.

Public contracts amounting to millions of euros were shrouded in controversy. These included the Mater Dei Hospital contract which had budget overruns, with more equipment than needed being ordered at the taxpayers’ expense. This was clear evidence that corruption was institutionalised in the country. There was a correlation between donors to the PN and contractors awarded lucrative public contracts.

Dr Dalli claimed that the Permanent Commission against Corruption had been ineffective. In 1988 it dealt with 32 cases but along the years these cases dwindled down to one every year.

The state of affairs within the commission led to one of its members, Dr Tonio Azzopardi, producing a minority report criticising the commission’s findings in a particular case under the chairmanship of Dr Albert Camilleri.

It was not healthy that the chairman remained in his post for more than one term of four years. The present chairman had presided over the commission for the last 12 years.

How could the government be taken seriously on corruption when there was no political will to fight corruption asked Dr Dalli

Malta’s problem was that corrupt persons were friends of the administration or of the party in government.

Dr Dalli concluded that the commission had to be credible and it was important to appoint people of moral integrity on the commission.