Opposition will not be 'bribed' by government - Simon Busuttil

PN deputy leader Simon Busuttil said he expected the Labour government to return the Opposition's readiness to cooperate by treating the Opposition with respect.

"We will not allow the government to bribe the Opposition by accepting any executive roles offered to us," Busuttil said in his maiden speech.

"I cannot understand why Joseph Muscat wants to appoint Nationalist MPs to executive positions. As far as I know in a normal democracy, the government has the right and duty to govern and the Opposition has the duty to watch over the government," he said.

Likening the proposal to the way African governments operate, Busuttil said: "In a strong democracy, the Opposition holds the government accountable and therefore I am concerned at the Prime Minister's proposal because if he gives executive powers to the Opposition we will end up with a one party system and nobody will be in Opposition."

He added that the Opposition could give a contribution by having Opposition members sit on government boards as they already do at MEPA, in a transparent and accountable way, "appointed by the leader of the Opposition and not by the Prime Minister to divide and rule."

In a clear reference to former GWU official Mario Cutajar, lawyer Ramona Frendo and unionist John Bencini but without mentioning any names, Busuttil said that Labour's claims that it would be applying meritocracy in all appointments proved to be false.

"The government's appointments dished out to who endorsed Labour by appearing on billboards or addressing mass meetings claiming that Labour would apply meritocracy," Busuttil said.

While Cutajar was appointed head of the civil service, Frendo was appointed on the justice reform commission and Bencini was appointed MCESD chairperson.  

Busuttil pointed out the Opposition's decision to vote in favour of the budget "because it is in the national interest."

"Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the government who peppered the President's Sate Opening speech with partisan jibes and the same goes for the Prime Minister's speeches so far," Busuttil said.

Despite the government's denials, Busuttil insisted that the Labour government had increased the country's deficit by one percentage point by including the €66m in duties collected by Enemalta, risking putting Malta in the EU's Excessive Deficit Procedure.

Yesterday, the Finance Ministry said that the €66m in duties collected by Enemalta which were not passed on to the government last year were not included in the government's deficit.

In a statement, the ministry said that  the amount was shown as due from Enemalta in the government's accounts and it was also shown as owed to the government in the corporation's books.

However, despite the government's statement that the 3.3% of GDP deficit was based on the accruals systems as required by the EU and was not reached because of Enemalta's failure to hand over the tax payments, Busuttil shed doubt on the statement.

"We are not convinced with the government's explanation because up to a few days ago we were in government and we based our projections on the same statistics provided by the authorities," Busuttil said.

He stressed that the PN Opposition is also concerned with the deficit projected by the Labour government for 2013, set at 2.7% by finance minister Edward Scicluna, compared to the Nationalist administration's original projection of 1.7%.

Busuttil added that the Labour government was set to increase the national debt by €600 million in three years, noting that this contrasted with the previous administration's projections to reduce debt and achieve a budget surplus by 2016.