The road projects undertaken by the government were confirming its incompetence, the acting leader of the Labour Party, Charles Mangion said yesterday.

Addressing a press conference in Peter Paul Rubens Street, Attard, built a few months ago, Dr Mangion pointed to parts of the road that had caved in.

The government, he said, did not deliver what it promised and instead there was squandering of public money and waste. The Nationalist government had been making promises on roads for the past 20 years. But they were not kept. Although roads were supposed to be built according to European standards, it only took a few hours of heavy rains last week to cause considerable damage to a big number of roads, he said.

Over the past months, damage appeared in a number of arterial roads because of bad workmanship. These would have been completed months or years after the projected termination date and would have cost millions of euros more than the original estimate. Examples mentioned by Dr Mangion were the Mtarfa bypass, the St Paul's Bay bypass, the Mosta ring road, the roads built through the Italian Protocol funds, Civil Aviation Avenue, Ħal Far Road and the Manwel Dimech bridge.

Now problems were appearing in residential roads very soon after being built. Such was the case of Peter Paul Rubens Street, which had been included in an ADT booklet of residential roads that had to be rebuilt between 2006 and this year.

Dr Mangion said that following his appointment as Roads Minister in July 2004, Jesmond Mugliett had boasted that, for the first time, the country was getting the opportunity to get the roads infrastructure up to the standards expected from a modern country.

Early last year, the minister had visited the roads in Attard on which work was being carried out and had even mentioned the work on Peter Paul Rubens Street. He had boasted that this work would improve not just the environment of individual roads but would also the standard of living of all those living in the locality.

In August, the minister had boasted that the government wanted residential roads to be built in a professional manner. He had said that the ADT was supervising and controlling all its projects to ensure good quality. But what happened in Peter Paul Rubens Street proved otherwise.

Dr Mangion said that over the past three years the government had raised over €3 billion (Lm1.29 billion) through increased taxes, the sale of national assets and EU funds. But the Maltese and Gozitans were not getting value for money as could be seen from the bad road works. Yet, nobody would shoulder any responsibility for what was happening.

A new Labour government would offer a public administration based on transparency, accountability and efficiency and whoever was responsible would have to give a clear account of his behaviour, Dr Mangion said.

The party's spokesman on roads, Charles Buhagiar, said the government had woken up to the reality that there were still hundreds of residential roads that had never been paved. So a scheme was announced through which 400 roads had to be built in two years and contractors, who did not do their work, well would not be given other contracts.

However, the work had started in a very hasty manner in a bid to finish what had to be done before the election and, as a result, there was lack of planning and supervision.

Residents living in roads where work had to be carried out had received a personalised letter from the minister. Residents of Birbal Street, Balzan, were informed that the work would be completed by the end of last year. But the road was still in a disastrous state. This apart from the fact that part of it had to be dug up several times, Mr Buhagiar said.