The Labour government is totally blind to good governance and is allowing abuse and corruption to gnaw away at Malta’s institutions, ADPD deputy chair Carmel Cacopardo said on Saturday.
In a press conference held outside of the Office of the Prime Minister in Valletta on Saturday, Cacopardo said that without transparency and accountability, there is no hope of achieving good governance.
He listed a number of times the present government allowed such behaviour to go unchecked, including the benefits fraud scandal, Rosianne Cutajar’s phantom job, Amanda Muscat's consultancy and Justyne Caruana awarding a consultancy to her friend football Daniel Bogdanovic.
He said such scandals only came to life because of institutions like the National Audit Office (NAO), the Ombudsman and the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life, as the government otherwise continues to close its eyes to the abuse of public office.
“We need serious accountability”, Cacopardo said.
“This means that everybody needs to take responsibility for their actions. This does not apply only to politicians who abuse their position of power, but also to the public officials who enable this to happen. This is what happened in every single case. In spite of this, these enablers retain their current positions or are rewarded in other ways.”
Party chair Sandra Gauci said that ADPD had requested an investigation into Johann Buttigieg being reappointed to the Planning Authority due to the conflict of interest, given the fact that he currently serves as a consultant to a major developer.
“The Planning Authority should be in competent hands, far from any direct influence from the developers’ lobby. We have asked for an investigation because the clear conflict of interest here has been completely ignored. A person who is very close to the developers’ lobby should never be appointed as the regulator of development,” she said.
“We will continue to insist on transparency and accountability as this is how our country can heal. Transparency is necessary. Accountability is necessary so that everybody takes responsibility for their actions. Without transparency and a strong sense of accountability, our country cannot navigate its way towards good governance,” Gauci concluded.