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News • August 8 2004


I am ready to tango, says Gonzi

Kurt Sansone
Lowering taxes does not seem to be on government’s books for the time being but a momentarily flustered Prime Minister yesterday said that he was ready to tango and start removing burdens on business by reforming the port system.
It was no coincidence that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi gave this reply to a l-orizzont journalist during yesterday’s regular monthly briefing. It was an obvious jibe at the GWU-owned Cargo Handling Company that operates a monopoly at the ports.
And a Prime Minister, who was ready to tango, yesterday also sung praises for entrepreneur Bertu Mizzi for helping out in the purchase of the lucrative embassy in Brussels.
Gonzi justified the Lm9 million expenditure, but admitted that communication between the Permanent Representative Richard Cachia Caruana and the Maltese press needed to improve. “I am not happy with the way government is communicating with the people in general. Communication needs to improve and that also includes the Permanent Representative to Brussels,” Gonzi answered to a question from MaltaToday.
Ironically, while Gonzi was stressing the need for better communication, yesterday morning on Super One Radio programme Spirtu Pront, host Sandro Mangion explained that a request to the Office of the Prime Minister to invite Richard Cachia Caruana to discuss the Brussels embassy issue was ignored.

On the Mater Dei Hospital, Lawrence Gonzi would not commit to a target date for its opening. “The target date depends on a number of variables but I insist that the date has to be the nearest possible and I cannot allow any more unexplainable delays,” Gonzi replied to a question from this newspaper.
He explained that a government-appointed committee was discussing all items of expenditure with Skanska (the company entrusted with the project). “The projected expenditure for the construction of the building was around Lm87 million but it has shot well over that amount. As yet government has only issued payments for amounts that total around Lm87 million and we are discussing with Skanska every item of expenditure. Where a higher expenditure resulted because of changes requested by government we have no problem to pay but on other items of expenditure where changes were made by Skanska we are contesting,” Gonzi said.
Asked about benchmarking for government ministers, Gonzi said he was holding ministers accountable for increasing productivity in the public sector. He admitted that the arrangement made between government and the Federation of Industry for the private sector to absorb workers from Industrial Projects and Services Limited (the company that absorbed the extra drydocks workers) has not functioned as expected.
Addressing the general perception that the country was shabby and unclean, Gonzi floated the idea that all public cleaning services would be concentrated under one ministry for better co-ordination.
During the morning presentation Gonzi listed a series of positive economic and financial indicators for the first six months of the year. He, however, called for caution and expressed apprehension at the rising price of oil which could have a negative impact on the economy. Gonzi said that government was also considering a longer term strategy to invest in renewable energy sources so that the country would be less dependent on oil for energy generation.
Taking a leaf out of the criticism often levelled at government from the Labour Party on the ever increasing public debt, Gonzi asked journalists presents to explain that debt would continue rising as long as government runs a deficit one year after the next. He reiterated his resolve to curb expenditure and contain the deficit. Extrapolating on the mid-year figures presented yesterday, Gonzi indicated that the end-of-year deficit would still be some three million more than that projected in the budget. “I am still not happy with expenditure control and will continue stressing this fact with my ministers,” the Prime Minister said.
And from next week chairpersons of public authorities will be briefed of a new waste-busting squad to be instituted at the Office of the Prime Minister, which will be scrutinising all expenditure made by the various authorities.

kurt@newsworksltd.com

 

 

 





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