A matter for grave concern

News that the government will not be delivering on its pre-electoral initiative to extend the Addolorata cemetery may be upsetting for the several hundreds who had ordered ordered their brand-new graves. But after so many broken promises, it will hardly come as a surprise.
While not exactly an electoral promise in its own right, the planned extension was advertised by means of an eye-catching billboard, proclaiming the addition of over 2,000 new graves shortly before the election.
Six months later, Social Policy Minister John Dalli had finally lain this proposal to rest. He came up with an unlikely pretext to account for this reneged promise: the proposed extension, he argued, would compromise the aesthetic effect of this architectural jewel.
At face value it is hard to take this seriously. After all, the architectural integrity of the Addolorata cemetery is a matter for the Malta Environment and Planning Authority to concern itself with... not the Ministry for Health and Social Policy.
To this end, MEPA has already given the green light to the development of a high-rise triple tower, now almost complete, which both overlooks and dwarfs the Addolorata cemetery with little apparent regard for the effect this would have on the nearby “architectural jewel”.
It is unclear why Mr Dalli feels the promised extension would be more harmful to the site than the unbridled development encroaching upon it from all sides. A far likelier reason is the one provided (albeit indirectly) by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, who has acknowledged a “slippage” in public finances, and has already hinted that the forthcoming budget may not be as generous as the electorate was given to understand before March 8.
In fact, it is beginning to look as though the Addolorata extension will itself be buried under the weight of a burgeoning financial reality, which although largely beyond the control of the present government, was not exactly unpredictable last February.
Meanwhile, information about the precarious state of public finances has been filtering out from various government channels in an unco-ordinated manner.
First we hear of one government incentive scheme being stopped with no plausible reasons brought forward for its termination; some time later we hear of another government programme that has been terminated, with no explanations forthcoming.
The charade has been going on since after the last election.
Nobody from government has yet dared to publicly and clearly admit that the various schemes have been stopped as part of a broad cost-cutting exercise to streamline expenditure.
There have been one too many schemes terminated for reasons that remain obscure, to say the least.
The Housing Authority equity-sharing scheme was stopped despite a commitment taken during the last budget and reiterated with force in the Nationalist Party’s electoral manifesto.
The rebate on energy-saving appliances was discontinued supposedly because the money allocated to the scheme was used up, even though the electoral manifesto made it clear that the rebate was a commitment government wanted to live up to.
The “pharmacy of your choice” scheme, launched with so much pomp last year, has been abandoned halfway, presumably for a stock-take of the situation. Again this flies in the face of both last year’s budget commitment, and the electoral manifesto pledge to implement the scheme nation-wide.
When these schemes were launched there was no hint of budgetary constraints. On the contrary, when Lawrence Gonzi delivered his last budget in October last year the fiscally expansionary measures were touted as “prudent”.
Gonzi built the budget on the premise that bigger economic growth for 2008 would yield higher government revenues, which would make up for the increased expenditure and at the same time contribute to a further reduction in the deficit.
That projection has turned out to be way too ambitious, and the consequences are now being felt by the general public across the entire social spectrum.
From this perspective, the abandonment of the cemetery extension at Addolorata is but the latest twist to this covert cost-cutting drive. Hidden in the explanation the Social Policy Minister tried to give were the words: ‘Problem? No money!’
Can the Finance Minister tell us clearly whether he has given ministers a directive to curb their expenditure, and by how much?
Gonzi promised the world, but all he can now deliver is the moon. Apart from the material loss for people hit negatively by the terminated schemes, government also has to address people’s high expectations, which were given an unrealistic boost before the election.
Small wonder that last Saturday, Gonzi would call on the people to keep their feet on the ground. If their heads are in the clouds, it is largely the result of Gonzi’s own ethereal, pre-electoral rhetoric. Bringing them back to earth now can only be interpreted as a belated realisation that the country’s finances are not on sound footing at all. This is surely a matter for grave concern.

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