Gozo ministers and spouses: till elections do them part

Acrimonious exchanges characterised Monday evening’s edition of Reporter, which broached the subject of political accountability and corruption in the wake of the Gozo “works for votes” scandal.

Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg, PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami, together with former Labour candidate Alex Sciberras and university academic Simon Mercieca joined presenter Saviour Balzan in the studio to discuss the longer term lessons to be learned from the scandal.

Borg defended Labour’s role in legislating the Whistleblower Act, used by the contractor who blew the whistle on Anthony Debono, the former Gozo minister’s husband accused of having commissioned private works for constituents paid by the ministerial budget.

Fenech Adami was keen to point out that Debono was not the person under investigation here, but her husband. “The PN established clear standards from the start. If there are allegations of a serious nature about a person, he should step down. Once the allegations are investigated and the police take action their position becomes untenable.”

He said that only 10 minutes after her husband was arraigned, Giovanna Debono ceased to be a member of the PN parliamentary group.”

Instead, he said it should be Gozo minister Anton Refalo to be investigated on the same accusations. “If the accusations brought against her husband are proven, then her situation is untenable,” Fenech Adami said of Giovanna Debono. “It is unacceptable. But let us use the same measurement for all.”

On his part Mercieca said that once elections are announced, all transfers in the public service, all public tenders and calls for application are halted until the election has passed.

Whilst agreeing with the principle that partners of ministers should not be involved in ministries – Debono was a civil servant at the head of the Gozo ministry’s projects division – Fenech Adami said that under Labour there was a  vast gulf between words and deeds.

He brought up the obvious example of energy minister Konrad Mizzi’s wife Sai Mizzi who, he said, was being paid paying €13,000 a month by the taxpayer, in spite of the taxpayer not being told what for or indeed, where she is.

“To have the wife of a minister earning this much without us knowing is a bad thing in itself, independently of the fact of whether she is in the same ministry as her husband or not.”

Mizzi Liang was appointed trade envoy by Malta Enterprise in March 2013, and later made consul to Malta in Shanghai.

“But today,” said Fenech Adami, “we have Anton Refalo’s wife also working in his secretariat.”

Ian Borg interjected, pointing out that Refalo’s wife was working in customer care, not deciding on infrastructure projects. “She’s working in customer care,” said Fenech Adami sarcastically. “Bullseye. Imagine had we done something like that, God forbid...”

Mercieca said that the public expected great things from the PL.  “If the politicians aren’t going to change the political culture, the people will. If the PL keeps up with these scandals it risks losing the elections.”

Alex Sciberras agreed, adding that a culture of political responsibility and transparency must take root and pointed out that the government had now provided the tools for this.

Fenech Adami had only words of praise for former secretary-general Chris Said and his indefatigable work ethic, now that he leaves the post to go back to focus on the party’s work in Gozo. “He is the right man. Said did the right thing in going back to Gozo, but now we must appoint a new general secretary.”

Borg however said he doubted that anyone actually believed that Chris Said was pleased with this development, which he claimed was a demotion.

Sciberras was more pointed in his evaluation. “The context is very hard to understand due to conflicting messages from the PN. The very person you have identified as the best fit for the role, you have now removed from the post to fill a vacancy.”

Reporter, hosted by Saviour Balzan, airs every Monday at 20:40 on TVM2, with a repeat at 21:55 on TVM.