I am bored with the Pullicino Orlando saga, and anyway it is conveniently taking attention away from other much more prominent people in the Government.
JPO cannot be sacked from the House because people voted him in, he can only resign. But in that he is as pigheaded as his nemesis.
What the PN decides to do about him is another matter. In the meantime, the accusations and denials are really getting messy further demonstrating the goings on behind the scenes not only in the corridors of power but also in the antechambers.
You can fool some of the people some of the time... Hopefully, the police investigation will unravel the Mistra goings on. So let us give JPO a rest, for today anyway and concentrate on the wider picture.
Many of us have, over the years, been bringing MEPA’s injustices, political interference and serious doubts on the integrity of decisions taken by DCC boards to public attention.
Yet, while JPO is fighting for his political career over one project, George Pullicino, who was responsible for the humongous mess at MEPA and who arrogantly ignored all advice is still sitting comfortably in the Cabinet.
By taking over the MEPA portfolio the Prime Minister showed recognition of Pullicino’s unsuitability, so why give him another?
I have more on the Cabinet, but let us first take a look at the deflated Opposition. So the Labour Party’s national executive and parliamentary group deliberations have led them to the decision that they would rather not have any truck with power sharing.
As was expected the delegates will still decide on who will lead the Party, but the radical proposals to give the grassroots a say still stole the attention away from the newly formed Cabinet.
It would have been incredible had the people with the power in the MLP decided to share it, and of course they didn’t.
But while the MLP gets its act together and discusses whether it will have Baby-face Joe or Steady George as leader, let us take a look at the ‘new’ makeover around the highest table in the land.
None of the young new bloods are great shakes or even shakers though one has a powerful ace to back him up.
John Dalli is back and in true form was in the saddle pronto visiting Mater Dei and saying the government’s priority is to reduce waiting lists and improve community care to ease the pressure off hospitals. He says he will improve the service in the polyclinics. The money to pay for it will come through making the health service more efficient is the message.
Interestingly, I hear that only yesterday the Floriana Polyclinic was refusing any house visits except emergencies because of understaffing.
Now while some people can afford to call a private doctor, not everyone can and certain patients just cannot make their way to the clinic. So is this improving the service?
Was it a wise move to give Dalli that portfolio? Health is a major resource-voracious sector, which needs a tough decision taker with financial acumen. Assets John Dalli undoubtedly possesses. Expenditure in the sector has progressively risen dramatically over the years. But health is not a hard-nosed sector; unlike trade unions and businesses this is a highly emotional, sensitive area.
The Minister needs a more experienced parliamentary secretary to help him if he is to succeed in providing a sustainable, equitable health service. One who can help with the delicate balance between humane needs and fiscal resources.
Dalli needs a strong aide who will assertively bring to the Minister’s attention where economies would be likely to do more harm than good in the long run.
Public opinion will favour the vulnerable in any dispute.
Health and social problems are inextricably linked. People are living longer and social problems, which are a big contributor to ill health, are on the increase. Many doctors will tell you that they keep seeing patients’ health failing to improve because of social problems that are not being attended to.
So while patients lives are being prolonged due to developments in science, happiness eludes them because of social problems.
This is partly due to a shortage of social workers. When social workers are overstretched their performance suffers, the problems are not properly attended to and ill health is bound to follow. Will there be a trade-off between restricted financial resources and reaching overall health policy goals to sustain the healthcare system?
The Minister recognises that new strategies are crucial to controlling the complexity that affects expenditure and performance of healthcare. Will he achieve core objectives like universal access, high quality standards, efficiency and effectiveness, adequate funding and satisfaction of patients?
John Dalli has probably got the toughest assignment and he needs the right people around him if he is to keep the government’s promises.

Moving on
I am pleased to see that the police are moving on illegal fireworks manufacture, storage and transport. Late in the day and it has taken too many tragedies to get some results, but keeping the issue bubbling on news pages is a good motivator.
A view strengthened by reading what explosives expert Colonel Albert Camilleri had to say on the issue.
Although he has over the years come across “quite a lot of cases where fireworks were being manufactured illegally, there was no way of determining the magnitude of the situation... You only come across them through anonymous calls”, he told Claudia Calleja.
These are usually sparked off by a tragedy like the recent Naxxar explosion, which killed an innocent bystander. I share Colonel Camilleri’s fear that the public’s resolve to keep calling the police about illegal activity would fizzle out, as it has done in the past, only to return when some other tragedy occurred.
That is why it is essential that unlike his predecessor, Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici must act now. He needs to get tough legislation through to ensure proper deterrents are in place and that the police do not lose interest in bringing people who endanger lives to book.
The fines are still not strong enough to deter the fanatics. As the law stands now a prison term cannot exceed six months and the maximum fine is €465.87 (Lm200).
A man found guilty of illegally manufacturing fireworks in an unlicensed factory was fined €465 (Lm200) and another was fined €209 (Lm89.72) after the police found petards in his truck, which was also confiscated by the court.
A further two men were on Monday fined a total of €674 (Lm289.26) after they pleaded guilty to charges of manufacturing and being in possession of explosive material without authorisation.
But it is not just the fines. The experts’ advice has been ignored for too long. It is not only the unlicensed premises that are a danger. None of the many recommendations in countless reports were implemented and there has also been a remarkable silence on the issue from the Cabinet, which had directly intervened to bypass regulations in 2001.
Besides, the minister responsible for burying a report identifying factories, as unsafe in 2004 has faffed about since by forming new commissions and still ignoring their reports four years later.
One would have thought that the government would have felt a twinge of responsibility considering that all irregular factories were issued with “temporary licences to operate” year after year for decades.
Is it any wonder that some think they are above the law? More than half of the factories do not satisfy the safety criteria of space and distance, according to one expert.
The last report came out between Christmas and the New Year. It said that the sector remains “largely unmonitored” and confirmed the lackadaisical way the use and distribution of hazardous chemicals are dealt with and recommended this should be rectified.
I wrote at the time that it was all very well to come out with a report with some sensible recommendations, especially on explosive materials, but that until we see some tangible results, and considering past experiences, one cannot but be cynical.
Then we had the next tragedy earlier this month. And Tonio Borg, the Minister, who has for years repeatedly ignored expert recommendations and public concern to bring the firework sector to heel, is like George Pullicino, sitting comfortably at the Cabinet table and is also still deputy prime minister.

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