Brussels property saga!

We have read and listened to various for and against arguments about the purchase of Dar Malta in Brussels. However the bottom line remains, not the cost but whether a country such as tiny Malta, which has a national debt of 1.3 billion liri, can afford to spend Lm9 million on a building to house our EU representation?

This purchase alone accounts for over 10 per cent of the money obtained from the EU.

Here are some useful tips to our administrators on what they should and should not do when running a country with a population of 400,000 and a national debt of Lm1.3 billion.

1. Do not invest on items that the country cannot afford and wake up to the reality of our precarious financial situation. We are not contesting for the title of the European Island of Posers but as a nation of common sense.

2. Stop investing in top-of-the-range chauffeur-driven cars to drive us around our tiny island. Prestige is something that one must be able to afford.

3. Stop flying "Club Class", when an economy flight costs a third of the price.

4. Declare to the "taxpayers" the thousands of liri paid to the government-appointed "consultants" as you declare your own income and salaries.

5. Stop paying overtime to civil servants when you claim that the service is over manned in the first instance.

6. Collect all due taxes from all citizens on a regular basis and not just from the wage and salary earners.

7. All working citizens should have equal working and termination conditions irrespective of whether they are employed in the private or public sectors.

Please lead by example, and administer this country by setting the right examples. The public will then follow. Above all, stop indulging in controversial projects and issues that cost money we can hardly afford.