With COVID and the unprovoked inhuman Russian war against Ukraine we have been conditioned to accept that difficult times may carry on indefinitely. We are now used to the dire situation and submit stoically to inevitable problems.
We are aware that many middle and low income individuals and families have ended up suffering disproportionately, unable to afford basic daily needs. In times like these it is fair and expected that the state assumes the responsibility to direct a suitable part of citizen generated tax revenue towards interventions set to help those who cannot manage to keep up.
The 2023 budget could not but feature a social bias; anything else would have implied a government totally insensitive towards vulnerable citizens. From a party that projects itself as socialist an absence of interventions in favour of deprived citizens would have been unacceptable.
As funds to help out are limited, these need to be administered responsibly. In hard times therefore, tax revenue must absolutely not be mismanaged or wasted. Are we sure that this is not the case?
In 2013, public sector employment stood at 41,000. By 2022, after nine years of Labour administration, this number increased by 10,000 to 51,000 employees. This means a permanent per annum increase in government payroll expenditure of at least €200 million.
This increase is financed by taxpayers. Are all these costly jobs really required in the public sector? Sixty per cent of the Gozo working population now resides within the public sector.
By 2023 the national debt is projected to exceed €9 billion- Arthur Muscat
Are we talking of high productivity jobs or of so many unnecessary and useless jobs that have been irresponsibly dished out to Labour supporters? This amounts to mismanagement. What if these €200 million were to be spent more judiciously on infrastructure or social initiatives? What if 10,000 persons possibly wastefully residing in the public sector were to be re-directed to productive private sector employment?
When the Labour Party came to power in 2013, the national debt amounted to €4.8 billion; by 2022, this figure went up to €8.5 billion, and by 2023 it is projected to amply exceed €9 billion. The national debt increased as a result of borrowing by this Labour government. Labour borrowed to cover deficits caused by overspending beyond the revenue planned to be collected from taxpayers.
As it remains unpaid, a national debt needs to be serviced, that is, interest has to be paid to the lenders; this interest runs into hundreds of millions. Have national debt funds been judiciously utilised? Not really; why, for instance, in these hard times, has the Tourism Authority been allowed to wastefully spend €19 million in excess of its budget? The list of instances of mismanagement and incompetence is unending.
Instances of arrogant incompetence include €54,000 ridiculously paid to a just graduated 23-year-old ‘consultant’. This amount is the equivalent of the cost of five pensions due to entitled elderly persons.
Another probable waste case concerns the planning minister who dismissed and replaced the CEO of the Building and Construction Agency. This dismissed CEO was one year into a three-year contract. A confirmation by an industrial tribunal of an unjust dismissal could see taxpayers donating €200,000 to this rather lucky CEO.
We recently heard of the €10 million cost of the Pilatus Bank inquiry, only to be followed by strenuous efforts to suppress its findings and conclusions. This is how public taxpayers’ money is arrogantly treated.
No wonder wasteful deficit spending keeps growing and our national debt is getting out of control. There is no end to the various ongoing sagas, (Air Malta, Steward Vitals, Electrogas, €500K metro exhibitions, etc.) that are proving to be a tremendous drain on taxpayers’ funds that could be directed towards pressing socioeconomic needs.
Now that the budget propaganda song and dance is over it is time to look at these Labour performers and assess them for what they really are. Are they up to the task of decent social and competent economic governance? No, competent and honest governance is still out of the grasp of our cabinet of ministers.
Through a costly PR and propaganda exercise we are being fed the illusion of very responsible and competent governance. We must not be taken in; while this deficit-fuelled budget does include some essential economic sectoral and social support measures, incompetence and mismanagement remain prominent.
Arthur Muscat is a human resources and industrial relations specialist.