Addressing your needs

Away from the gaze of the public and the media Prime Minister Fenech Adami and his Finance Minister John Dalli have been meeting regularly in the last few weeks to discuss the poor state of public finances. Government's deficit is said to be between Lm20 million and Lm30 million more than that projected for 2002 by the Finance Minister.

This is being hidden completely from public view although Cabinet Ministers and the top echelons of the public service have been made aware of it through circular MF No.2/2003 dated January 24 signed by Minister Dalli himself. The circular instructed the various departments and government entities to spend and base themselves only on 90 per cent of the sum allocated to them in the 2003 budget.

The public finance crisis was only brought up in parliament through PQ 38,812 a month ago. Finance Minister Dalli tried to play down the whole issue by describing the contents as a technical development.

But beyond all talk of variable budgeting, ministers and their permanent secretaries were alarmed that this circular meant a 10 per cent expenditure cut across the board. By the end of February they submitted new expenditure programmes based on a 10 per cent cut. They protested that a 10 per cent reduction in their budget meant that throughout 2003 they would be restricting themselves to paying out salaries to their employees but then would have no funds to carry out most of the programmes and initiatives in their area of responsibility.

We've been here before. Back in 1996 the Nationalist government had faced a crisis in public finance as there was a severe shortfall in revenue and the 'money no problem' philosophy of irresponsible and extravagant public expenditure was finally making itself felt. In August 1996 Minister Dalli had issued a memorandum admitting that the deficit had got out of hand.

Saved by the 1996 elections

A few weeks later the Prime Minister called a premature general election to make sure that the electorate would vote before the truth on the deficit would come out. During the election campaign neither Dr Fenech Adami nor Mr Dalli referred to the public deficit crisis.

In their public speeches they concealed the crisis and promised that a re-elected Nationalist government would ease the burden of taxation and spend more on social services. The 1996 general election saved the Nationalist Party by electing a Labour government to clean up the mess left by its predecessor. After a few months the Nationalist Party started blaming the public finance crisis on the Labour government!

The country is facing a similar situation now - only worse, as the public deficit and the public debt have continued to worsen. The general election of 1996 had saved the Nationalist government from reaping the bitter fruits of its "money no problem" policy. The Nationalist Party is now banking on the European Union issue to save it from being judged on its poor performance in government since 1998.

In the coming weeks the Nationalist Party will try to make these top priorities vanish from our national agenda:

* healing public finances as public debt continues to climb and is now over Lml,500 million;

* taking the necessary steps to ensure that Malta is competitive and attractive for tourists and investors when all our economic sectors are, to put it mildly, stagnant;

* tackling serious problems in education, where thousands of our children and young people are falling by the wayside;

* addressing environmental degradation which is harming our health and making our islands dirty and smelly;

* a party that has been too long in government has lost its ideas and energy and has become arrogant and run by a tight network of friends of friends.

The EU camouflage

Last summer Labour leader Alfred Sant was criticised for writing: "What is required is an ongoing determined focus to carry out the changes that matter. In government finance, in the incentives necessary to generate new industrial projects, in tourism, where we need to seriously upgrade the attraction so the island as a whole, in education, on environmental matters. All this is nowhere present, displaced as it has been, by the government's obsession with the EU."

The Labour leader had then suggested that instead of allowing the EU membership/partnership debate to top and hog the national agenda, "we should concentrate on the internal matters which need urgent and disciplined attention".

The way the Nationalist Party reacted to this suggestion has turned the old proverb "Intoxication departed and meditation came in its place" into "Intoxication departed and heavier intoxication came in its place". The wide network of opinion-makers made up of persons on government contracts and sponsorships were mobilised by the Nationalist Party to attack the suggestion of the Labour leader.

Since then the financial and economic situation in the country has become worse. At all costs the Nationalist Party does not want the public agenda to be dominated by the everyday concerns of the majority of the families and pensioners living on these islands. The Nationalist Party knows that it has failed in the major areas of public and social policy and does not want people to focus on these issues.

As the Nationalist Party knows that it cannot come up with any tangible and credible proposals to solve the problems it created for the country in the last 15 years, its only hope of winning the support of the majority of the voters is to turn their attention away from domestic everyday issues and market the intangible glitter of EU membership as the magical solution of every problem on the island.

But the majority of the citizens of Malta and Gozo have failed to be impressed and mesmerised by the Nationalist Party strategy. No wonder that only 48 per cent of all registered voters voted Yes in the unfair referendum on EU membership.

evaristbartolo@hotmail.com