AD concerned at Haz-Zebbug local council's 'mysterious' spending

Alternattva Demokratika Chairman Arnold Cassola has expressed concerns about the Haz-Zebbug local council’s negative working budget.

Speaking at a press conference in the locality, this morning, he described the incumbent council’s spending as a “great mystery,” in view of its €1,300,000 debt. Cassola pointed out that the roads of the village still show “a strong sense of neglect,” in spite of the thousands of euros spent on consultancies.

Also present at the press conference this morning were candidates Monique Agius for the Haz-Zebbug council elections, Henrik Piski for Qormi, Simon Galea for St. Paul’s Bay and party secretary general Ralph Cassar who is contesting the Attard elections.

Agius announced that in her meetings with residents, their dissatisfaction with the village’s alleged neglect emerged as a prominent theme. She noted that several streets were patched up in the past few weeks, in the run-up to the elections and that the contractor responsible for the works was none other than PN councillor and candidate, George Cortis. She asked what kind of permit he had obtained for this work and in the absence of one, why he was not stopped by the council.

The candidate called for greater commitment to transparency, pointing to recent reports on a private company receiving €30,000 for unspecified consultancy services. “What will the newly elected council be able to do, when the allocated funds are already insufficient for the council to operate normally and now will also have to be used to pay back the accumulated debt of €1,300,000?” she asked.

Alternattiva’s secretary general, Ralph Cassar renewed calls on the government to make more funds available to local councils, citing the current €31 million as miserly. In the absence of this, he said, the council should be allowed to keep some of the revenue it created. He pointed to shop licences and eco-tax which are paid directly to the central government. “The council must clean the waste they generate and receive nothing from the licence fee.”

Agius proposed to work more closely with NGOs, as currently none of them deal with local councils. The council also needed to be more proactive in waste recycling, she said, proposing a wider recycling policy which includes a “free cycle shop,” for depositing and exchanging clothes which are used but in good condition, to be freely taken by those needing them. Aside from this, she said, she would be pushing to improve library facilities in the area, to improve levels of literacy.