Letters | Sunday, 13 September 2009

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A record of maladministration for Gonzi

Having now recovered after blowing a gasket on reading your front-page story (‘Midi gets €3.3 discount’ 16 August), I am now more convinced than ever that it is not the government that runs the country, but the construction moguls and speculators.
Albert Mizzi’s Midi refused to pay a €4.5 million euro tariff for dumping construction waste in the sea, which saved them the cost of transporting it to landfills. So what does the government (then under Fenech Adami) do? Stop the construction until the levy is paid? Take the company to court? Impose a heavy fine? Give them a generous 10% discount? No, they fall on their knees in front of their ‘benefactor’ and knock off €3.3 million!
Can you imagine the government doing a similar – or even a small – deduction in the tax levy for the man in the street?
One must also not forget the Polidano debacle about the St Paul’s Bay bypass, when illegal excavations by Polidano caused part of the carriageway to subside. It took the government years (and a nice contract) to get it all put right. Was Polidano fined or taken to court for illegal excavation? Don’t be silly!
Then there’s the millions of euros which have remained uncollected for years on VAT, tax, parking fines, ADT, etc.
Is it not any wonder that taxes are so high when the country’s coffers are like a sieve, and our spineless government is too weak to stop the leaks? It’s always the little man who suffers.
Then, of course, there is inefficiency/complacency in high office. How can heads of departments (and for that matter, responsible ministers) allow all this money to remain uncollected and still remain in office? How can the VAT scam go on for so long? What were the head of department and the auditor doing other than drinking tea?
And why are they still sitting comfortably in their nice little offices?
But then in Malta nobody ever takes responsibility and resigns. And despite Gonzi’s oft-declared promise of ‘transparency’ and ‘responsibility’, the PM plays the ‘three monkeys’.
As a lifelong PN supporter, I am fast losing faith and patience in GonziPN. His transparency has completely vanished (no pun intended), and his credibility as a strong leader has sunk as low as his inept Cabinet’s.
A change of direction, and stricter discipline is a must if Gonzi is after an extension to his tenure come election time. But is he strong enough to do what is required? That’s the million-dollar question.

Joe Aquilina-St John
Mellieha

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