The gas plant deal announced by the Energy Minister this morning was binding the Government to buy from the winning consortium for 18 years at a price that was only fixed for the first five, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said this morning.
Speaking at a dialogue meeting in Swieqi, Dr Busuttil said:
“This is the contract the government is going in for in your name. Would you have signed such a contract? I would not have,” he said.
The Opposition leader also spoke on Friday's tragedy off Lampedusa and said that saving lives was Malta’s duty and should always be the country’s first and foremost priority.
Itwas a duty it should do with dignity and without boasting and which should precede any other consideration.
As a country, he said, Malta should be proud to have saved a number of people last Friday.
He said that following years of internal conflict in Syria, these people escaped because of persecution. The left everything behind and embarked on a dangerous journey to Libya and then faced an arduous sea journey to Europe hoping for a new chance at life.
They were shot at from Libya and spent a number of hours on their journey before their boat capsized, he said as he congratulated the AFM’s Maritime and Air Wing squadrons for their work to save their lives.
Turning to other matters, Dr Busuttil said that the Opposition will keep on talking about anything that needed talking about, even if this meant that it would have to face breaches of privilege.
While the Gozo Channel issue may be case closed for the Prime Minister, it definitely was not for the Opposition.
The same could be said for the appointment of a consultant who was blacklisted twice by the World Bank because of corruption.
“Is this the example the government is giving? Is this how serious the government is?”
Dr Busuttil said the Prime Minister was now saying the Government did not know he was blacklisted. Was no checking done, he asked adding that he hoped that people who applied for Maltese citizenship under the scheme the Government would be introducing would be thoroughly checked.
He insisted that the Opposition wanted to know all the details about the appointment of this consultant and that it was definitely not case closed.
Dr Busuttil also referred to Sai Mizzi’s appointment as Malta’s envoy for Asia and said that the Opposition had to work out her financial package itself.
This amounted to €13,000, more than some people managed to earn in a year.
“This is case open and the PN will keep insisting for transparency with the Government because there should not be two weights and two measures. There has to be the same standards for all and the Government has to follow them whether it likes to or not,” he said.
Closing the meeting Dr Busuttil said that the opposition will be strong but constructive.
“Our main interest is the country’s and we will acknowledge what is good and work with the Government on matters that we believe will be in the national interest…
“This Opposition will respect the people’s intelligence. We will not literally oppose everything but we will always be constructive…
“We have already said we will vote for the Health Bill currently in front of Parliament but we have not heard anything from the government yet…
“From the Opposition benches we want to show that things can be done well, that our standards are high, that we learn from our mistakes. We believe the people will appreciate this,” Dr Busuttil said.