Standards Committee needs to decide between 'the people and the thieves' - Bernard Grech

By: independent.com.mt

Nov 19 2024
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Standards Committee needs to d

The parliamentary Standards in Public Life Committee, which is set to meet on Thursday to discuss the Standards Commissioner’s report which found Ministers Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri guilty of an ethics breach, has to decide between the people of Malta and Gozo or “the thieves”, Nationalist Party Leader Bernard Grech said on Tuesday during an appearance on party media.

The Standards Commissioner report found that the two Ministers in question abused their power when Bartolo’s girlfriend at the time, now his wife, Amanda Muscat was given a consultancy job within the Ministry for Gozo which she had no qualifications for and did not do.

The members of the Standards Committee, chaired by Speaker Anglu Farrugia, are Justice Minister Jonathan Attard, Social Dialogue Parliamentary Secretary Andy Ellul, and Nationalist MPs Ryan Callus and Mark Anthony Sammut.

Opposition Leader Grech said that Prime Minister Robert Abela is “running away from making a decision” and is not paying attention to what the Standards Commissioner has said in regard to the Ministers’ breach of ethics. Grech questioned if the committee is going to agree with Abela and let everything go on with a ‘sorry’.

Grech said that the members of the committee are expected to vote with the people and adopt the Commissioner’s report. “We expect them to no longer ignore what is happening and what the people are saying. It is clear that we have a Prime Minister and a government with their backs against the wall.”

Speaking about the protest held outside of the parliament building on Monday, Grech thanked all those who attended and responded to the PN’s call for people to come out and make their voices heard, “to not allow the government to continue stealing from the Maltese and Gozitan people.” He added that he would also like to thank one of the speakers, Matthew Magi, who Grech said spoke at the event about his personal experience as a worker in the film industry and discussed the difficulty of receiving pay within the local industry. Grech remarked that the Labour Party is a party for everything except the workers.

He commented that the people have given the Prime Minister a clear message that the wrongdoings can no longer continue, and remarked that Abela allowed two Ministers to pay out €70,000 a year to a “pretend consultancy” behind the people’s backs.

“The people have spoken and shown their anger, and so I send another message to the Prime Minister: Do not continue ignoring the anger of the people,” the PN Leader remarked.

Grech said that the government is attempting to defend itself by making up stories about the PN. He continued that the government has implied that some PN MPs do not go to work, commenting that the Prime Minister is trying to justify his wrongdoings by lying about the Opposition. “Yesterday I said that we will not let anyone shut our mouths. We will continue applying pressure, and we will not tolerate any frameups,” Grech stated.

Having said that, Grech continued that the PL made things up about Giovanna Debono, Toni Bezzina, and Karol Aquilina. He said that in each instance, the PN members accused were acquitted. “The Labour Party turns on our people and makes things up about them because the Labour Party has its back against the wall,” Grech commented.

He said that the PN is there for whoever the government tries to shut up because it does not agree with them. He also spoke about the ongoing situation in MCAST and said that MCAST students are suffering because the government is being stubborn with lecturers.

“These are the traitors to our country, those who are stealing from us and then get defended by the Prime Minister who says that a ‘sorry’ is enough,” Grech said. He concluded that a new nationalist government would be a government for everyone, and commented that the PN would establish a level playing field.