I refer to the article entitled ‘Gozo whistle-blower gets extra €210,000 contracts’ (May 26).

The Ministry for Gozo condemns attempts to tarnish the whistle-blower’s name and his reputation to discredit the evidence put forward by Joseph Cauchi in a case concerning the former Gozo minister’s husband, Anthony Debono, who has been accused of misappropriation of public funds in exchange for votes.

First and foremost, it is completely false that the whistle-blower or his company have been awarded more than €210,000 in public jobs by the Ministry for Gozo. This is a blatant lie.

Cauchi, or his company, Gozo Renovations Limited, has been awarded a number of public tenders as the cheapest bid. This includes the construction of a lift shaft and the supply, installation, testing and commissioning of a lift at the Public Registry and Land Registry’s offices in By the Bastion Road, Victoria, which amounted to €85,509.29 (inclusive of VAT).

Another two tenders, amounting to €13,801.06 and €9,602.07 (both inclusive of VAT), concerned work at the Żewwieqa Waterfront and the setting up of a landings office at Marsalforn. Gozo Renovations Limited’s bids were again the cheapest.

The remaining works were awarded to Cauchi or his company in virtue of quotations and, hence, no direct orders have been awarded to Cauchi or his company.

Following 25 years of inaction by previous administrations, this government has, in the first part of its first legislature, delivered its promise to implement the Whistle-blower Act, which offers protection to citizens who reveal wrongdoing. Whistle-blowers should not be attacked or defended according to which political party is targeted with their revelations.

Those who believe in clean politics should allow the court determine the works-for-votes case, without trying to undermine the evidence put forward by a whistle-blower simply because it does not please one’s partisan interests.

Editorial note: The information on which the news item was based was supplied to us by the government following a request under the Freedom of Information Act.