Not Pressing

20^th July 2007

The Malta Independent - Friday Wisdom

 

We have a press that does not press. Former Minister John Dalli made very serious accusations against his own government regarding financial housekeeping adopted in financing the Mater Dei hospital project. Writing in the Sunday Times on 1 July 2007 he maintained that negotiations by the Gonzi administration with Skanska were conducted in a vacuum of continuity from the government’s side.

He maintained that as the person with most experience in such negotiations from the very origins of such project, he had enormous resources useful to ensure that the Malta side gets a fair settlement in the disputes with Skanska.

He lamented that these resources were totally disregarded by the Gonzi administration purely for reasons of internal pique which led to the forced resignation of Mr Dalli from the cabinet. Very pointedly Mr Dalli maintained that this lack of continuity served Skansa very well to the detriment of the Maltese taxpayers.

According to John Dalli, in previous negotiations Skanska had contractually committed themselves to finish off the part of the project under their responsibility within a budget of Lm93 million which was based on their own calculations. All representations subsequently made by Skanska to lift this budget cap were strongly refused by the Fenech Adami administration when former Minister Dalli was leading negotiations for the Malta side.

With John Dalli forced out of the negotiations, Skanska were able to score easy wins under the Gonzi administration and easily achieved their long sought objective of lifting the budget cap they had committed themselves to previously.

What was strongly denied by the Fenech Adami administration was conceded by the Gonzi administration. The budget cap of Lm93 million was lifted and the budget excess that Skanska were contractually obliged to fund were passed as a burden on the Maltese taxpayer. All this according to the revelations made by former Minister Dalli.

These are very serious accusations indeed. Serious because they involve huge sums of money which at this stage are still difficult to quantify but when all is crystallized they will amount to more millions than one can count on the fingers of several pairs of hands.

However the gravity of the accusations is further emphasized by the credentials of who is making them. This is not the Leader of the Opposition seeking to score a quick political point. It is not an opposition spokesman criticizing whatever the government comes up with. This is a voice from the government’s own stables - indeed a person who presented eleven budgets for the government and who was directly involved in the Mater Dei negotiations from the very beginning. His accusations ought to carry tremendous weight.

This ought to have been a great story for the press to exploit in any country where the Press performs correctly its expected role in a working democracy. A normal Press would have been pushing their microphones under the Prime Minister’s mouth seeking his government’s reactions to John Dalli’s statements. A normal press would be pressing Mr Dalli to explain further what he was implying.

Was he making a subtle declaration that his removal from Cabinet was in any way designed to suit the interest of Skanska who were finding in Dalli an obstruction to their objective to escape from their commitment to finish the project within the budget figure they committed themselves to?

A normal press would be burning the telephone lines of the Prime Minister’s office seeking answers to the questions raised by John Dalli’s revelations. Why was the budget cap lifted reversing previous objections? Why was John Dalli kept completely out of the negotiations with Skanska and was not even consulted as a matter of continuity? Why has government kept complete silence about Mr Dalli’s revelations? In the absence of a firm rebuttal is their accuracy to be taken for granted?

Clearly we have a press that does not press the government. Why this is so, one is free to reach one’s own conclusions, including the hypothesis that the press has a conflict of interest and that it attaches priority to fanning the government’s agenda over the obligation to inform the public and shed light where darkness prevails.

What a difference from the way the press behaves when there arises any situation that could make life difficult for Labour. At the slightest hint of internal disagreement in the Labour camp the press jumps to try to exploit and widen such differences.

There are others however who have a legal and constitutional obligation to press. Primary among them is the National Audit Office (NAO).

What action is the NAO taking to investigate the accusations made by Mr Dalli against his own government? Faced with these accusation from people in the know how can the NAO persist with its stand-offish posture with regards to whatever is happening at Mater Dei?

Or is the NAO, like the press, only willing to press when Labour is in charge?