Labour leader Joseph Muscat today spoke for the first time on the investigation on fraud at the VAT Department. This, he said, was not just fraud, but also corruption. It was worrying that despite what was said about the audit trail and checks and balances, it had to be an outsider to draw attention to the corruption which existed. What was the scale of the funds involved? How big was this corruption?

This was a serious injustice for thousands of taxpayers, who were fined just for sending a return two days late and always obeyed the law.

This case reflected incompetence.There was a bordelo in one of the most important departments. This case had to be seen in the context of other cases such as spying on the people, corruption in the law courts and how EU funds were brought to Malta because somebody ‘knew how to play the game’.

It was not enough for the government to have said it would investigate matters. The people wanted to know who was responsible and who would be held to account.

In other parts of his speech Dr Muscat said the local council reform should have included a reform of local law enforcement and the issue of speed cameras.

Dr Muscat referred to plans for the building of wind farms. He said that the government first promised a large offfshore windfarm 20 miles off Malta but now it appeared that this had been put on the backburner and the focus was on onshore windfarms.

What was happening, however, was that instead of discussing the matter with the experts, the government had gone to its parliamentary group.

Dr Gonzi, on being pressed at a recent group meeting, said sites under consideration were in Gozo, Mellieha, Rabat and Delimara. A discussion then ensued, not on wind direction, but the direction of votes.

Soon, the govenrment would say there would be technical and environemntal studies. But it was the voting impact assessment which it was really interested in.

The PL had no confidence in this system of administration, Dr Muscat said.