Far-right party Azzjoni Nazzjonali (AN) called for an investigation to quantify the amount of money spent by the Nationalist Government in propaganda campaigns during the past five years as well as identify those responsible.
“Azzjoni Nazzjonali believes that these campaigns are ultra vires. The government is doing with public money things that it does not have the mandate to do,” party leader Josie Muscat said during a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Sliema yesterday morning.
Muscat said the party will be doing its utmost “to ensure that this blatant abuse does not continue, especially in view of the fact that the electoral campaign is approaching”.
Asked by MaltaToday whether AN would be making a complaint with the Auditor-General or the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) about the matter, Muscat did not commit himself. “We are pursuing all the possibilities,” he said curtly.
On his part, party president Philip Beattie was colder at the idea of AN making this kind of complaint with the authorities, noting that the Public Accounts Committee would never take up an investigation on misuse of public funds unless directed to do so by Government or the Opposition.
Muscat accused the Government of “not only benefiting from the money offered by those who did well, but is also using public funds for propaganda purposes, even the funds of those might not agree politically with it.”
“In the thirst that it has to hold to the reins of power, the Government has lost every sense of ethics and morality, and is using public funds to subsidise the PN’s electoral campaign,” Muscat charged.
He recalled that in the UK, the Labour Party’s deputy leader, Harriet Harman, was under pressure to resign because she did not declare money that was donated for her electoral campaign earlier last year.
“Would you imagine that something like this would happen here? In this country, everything is acceptable and nobody makes any comment about the situation,” Muscat insisted.
He accused the Government of getting its priorities wrong when spending a lot of money on propaganda to advertise projects like the Mater Dei Hospital, the 2008 Budget and the Government’s vision for Cottonera, while at the same time not finding enough money to finance treatment for cancer patients, among other vital things.