PN will reward competence, not political affiliation says MP

The Nationalist Party will have no qualms in appointing Labour Party supporters to important roles as long as they're competent, Nationalist MP Ryan Callus said.

"Labour's pre-electoral promise of meritocracy was false," Callus said, citing the employment of energy minister Konrad Mizzi’s wife as Maltas trade envoy to China.

"However, if we get elected we are ready to implement a transparent and meritocratic system where jobs in the public sector are given out to people depending on their skills, not their political colours," Callus said durinmg a press conference this afternoon.

He heavily criticised principal permanent secretary Mario Cutajar who said that the number of public service workers increased because government services, such as health services have increased. 

"People aren’t sensing the reduced bureaucracy that the government is claiming. Everyone who's been to the accident and emergency department can see the panic and chaos there," Callus said.

"If there was a crisis before Labour got elected, its a disaster now," he added.

The MP also insisted that the government has employed new 4,400 people in the public sector in the span of 16 months.

"The prime minister wants to hide the true unemployment figures," Callus said, adding that in a healthy economy, it’s the private sector that creates jobs and not the State.

Callus also lambasted Cutajar's attitude as being unfit, stressing that "the cherry on the cake came when Cutajar said that it is necessary for the government to employ people of trust, especially after spending 25 years in opposition. This is a partisan attitude that would have befit a Labour candidate but not the permanent secretary who is supposed to defend civil society," Callus said.

"Cutajar has dishonoured both himself and the public service," the MP added.

Meanwhile, PN candidate Roslyn Borg called for clear criteria in the way public jobs are handed out to people, such as the one in the private sector.

"There should be no discrimination when employing people within the public sector," Borg said.

"It demotivates hard-working and qualified people who lose out on certain jobs due to political reasons."

She also said that government communications coordinators should not be allowed to host programmes on political television stations, citing former Labour television journalists Charlon Gouder, Ramona Attard, and Jonathan Attard as examples.