Vince Farrugia's GRTU hits out

The unsigned GRTU article from its official electronic organ also accuses  MaltaToday for its “allegations’. The GRTU newSTRING issue 178 claims that the story is “sheer fabrication” without “an iota of fact hanging to it.”

But the article is undoubtedly scripted by Vince Farrugia, the director of GRTU, a former labourite frontman who later on decided to stand with the Nationalist party in the European elections.

In the MaltaToday story, GRTU were asked to give their version of the facts and their quotes were repeated verbatim.

“It’s a bucket of bile and nothing else,” GRTU's article reads, adding that Brincat “made a terrible misjudgment highlighting it”.

“The story from head to tail [from head to ‘toe’] is one cheap journalistic lollypop [lollipop] ready for a born yesterday politician to lick,” the article says. “That is why GRTU was honestly shocked when they saw the Leo Brincat parade. What nonsense!”

Later on, the author describes Brincat as “normally well behaved”.

Green MT is a subsidiary of GRTU. The unsigned article says that Green MT directors do not own the company: “They hold their tenure of Office as nominees of the GRTU National Executive. Why should these gentlemen on a temporary lease as directors act in any way unethically when all is on record and subject to scrutiny.[?]”

The article also questions what a couple of mayors told MaltaToday in its original story. Contacted by the paper, the Hamrun and Tarxien councils said that they were not even aware that GreenMT had collected waste from their locality in 2009.

“Indeed it strange that some Mayors said what they said as a basis the MaltaToday story as at that time so many discussions were going on involving also the Association of Local Council that it is inconceivable that any mayor did not know there there was a cut-off date from which the Local Government Department did not pay their contractor and that Green MT was taking over the payments in 22 localities,” the author writes in one breath.

It goes on as saying that Brincat always had “excellent relationships” with GRTU: “Why ruin it all by blasting incredulous inventions and putting himself in serious legal proceedings situation.[?]” 

“The question is really “who’s behind it all” - and back to the hidden agenda claims – “GRTU knows MaltaToday and know [knows] the vitriol Saviour Balzan and Roger Degorgio [Degiorgio] have for GRTU, unexplainable, but its there, and like many others in Malta the GRTU leadership learned to live with it as the people of Xaghjra [Xghajra] learned for years to live with the stench next door.”

The author hints that GRTU is a victim: “For those with a stomach full of bile, success is a dirty word. There are people out there who are green with jealousy [envy] seeing that a business organisation like GRTU can go all out to organise and manage professionally a National Scheme […].”

To add insult to injury, GRTU does not understand why government initiated an investigation: “GRTU honestly hopes that Mario Demarco has been misquoted as we cannot believe that anybody in Government is now doubting the integrity of all the people that have worked so hard [...].”

The direct translation from Maltese to English goes on: “But we say it load [loud] and clear: Green MT and GRTU are not afraid of any investigation. Indeed the sooner the better so all would know what stomach one needs to invent such stories.”

The article concludes with a warning, “a sinister and sad message” :

“The message the people behind the new politics who are running the show, using people Leo Brincat, is loud and clear: dealing with the elected government of this country puts your enterprise in the limelight, it’s bad for your business, and you become a target.”

The paragraph was repeated twice.  Probably to emphasize the point.