PN Sta Venera mayor resigns her post after damning Auditor General report

Sta Venera PN mayor Elizabeth Vella has resigned her post following an investigation by the auditor general, which recorded a number of irregularities.

6 August 2010, 12:00am
by Karl Stagno-Navarra

1 min read

In a statement, the PN said that Elizabeth Vella had shown ‘high moral standards’ by tendering her resignation and thanked her for her service to the locality and said that it expects its councilors to be ‘serious and ethical’.

Vella resigned in the wake of a report by the Auditor General, who explained that he had been officially requested by the Prime Minister to investigate an alleged irregularity involving the mayor after the executive secretary - alleged in a report - that without informing the council, the mayor had received rental income emanating from the use of the council premises by a third party.

When questioned, mayor Elizabeth Vella said she had received a total of €80 in two payments of €25 each and another payment of €30 from a tutor who held lessons at the council offices. The contributions were always in cash and no receipts were issued.

The money was deposited in a bank account set up by the council in 2000 to help residents in need. The mayor said she topped the sum deposited to €100, donating €20 personally.

The Auditor General said that the executive secretary had instructed the tutor to settle financial contributions directly with the mayor, in breach of council financial regulations and the donations were not covered by receipts.

He concluded that being sustained by public funds, councils were to be accountable for the recording of all the income received and to the care and custody of all assets falling under their responsibility. Pertinent laws and procedures regulating the current operations of councils were to be fully adhered to.

More from Karl Stagno-Navarra

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Why didn't minister Tonio Fenech or Minister Dolores Cristina resigned and why GONZIPN forced the AUDITOR GENERAL to investigate these cases of the Mayor of St Venera and he didn't use the same with these 2 ministers which ther cases were much serious then the small mistake that did mayor Elizabeth Vella you should be ASHAMED opf yourself Dr GONZIPN

Alfred Galea •

I have a feeling that she resigned because she was forced to. In Malta, NO POLITICIAN would resign for something as minor as that. UNLESS there are things that aren't public knowledge yet.

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If i could believe that she got the sack over an EUR100, i could even harbor the idea of having faith in this country. The principle is what matters and not the amounts involved. Then again, Stalin once said that the dead of one person is a tragedy and the dead of a million is a statistic. We work on this same principle in Malta when it comes to corruption, and basic democratic and ethical principles.

Hans •

Re Joe South Your questions make sense. However I would pose other questions which I see as much more important. The auditor, many times over, has put the same doubts about much more money than a mere 100 euros and about polititians of a much bigger stature than that of a local Mayor. Why Ministers have not resigned when faced with cases of millions of euros by the Auditor General? Why did Ministers contest Auditor reports instead of resigning? And what's more everything was let to go by and the matters left to be forgotten.

Alfred Galea •

Did she resign voluntarily or was forced to resign by the PN?? Why would she resign over a matter of 100 euros, 20% of which was hers anyway?? Could it possibly be that the PN didn't want a "Fgura" on their hands??