Budget Speech translation awarded to Prime Minister’s son

It's well known that the finance ministry's budget speech is highly top-secret and that even MPs are not privy to the details of the final speech.

So perhaps it was a natural choice to hand-pick David Gonzi, the prime minister's son, to take care of the translation for the 2012 budget speech.

A list of direct orders published by the finance ministry in reply to a parliamentary question by Labour whip Joe Mizzi revealed that Global Translations Solutions was the recipient of a €3,701 direct order, to translate the 2012 budget speech.

David Gonzi is one of four shareholders in the legal-translation firm.

Direct orders are issued by government ministries for jobs and services that are less than €2,500 according to the urgency attached to the procurement, and restrictions of choice and availability. Orders above €2,500 but not exceeding €6,000 require approval of the finance minister.

Previous translation jobs awarded to GTS from the Office of the Prime Minister included a paltry €59 job, and another €1,400 contract to the Malta Tourism Authority which had issued a call for quotations.

Upon being elected PN leader and prime minister, Lawrence Gonzi had to face criticism over a Lm24,000 (€55,900) job for the translation of EU documents between 2002 and 2004, entrusted to his son's firm.

The information had emerged in a PQ by Labour MP Gavin Gulia to then home affairs minister Tonio Borg, who revealed that Global Translations had received Lm1,279 in 2003 and Lm23,153 for translation services.