Be the first to comment!Labour Ministers in charge of Gozo“ must take responsibility” – PN
 Email item
|  Print item
|
|
“The quarrel between the Labour Ministers who in the last 9 years have completely abandoned the field of justice in Gozo has now led to two public officials being brought to court accused of criminal offences concerning health and safety, as reported by the Times of Malta.”
This was said in a statement on Friday by Karol Aquilina, the Nationalist Party Spokesperson for Justice.
He stated that, “due to the serious shortcomings of the Labour Ministers, criminal charges have been filed against two public officials who depend on the financial allocation, long-term planning and political will to carry out the improvement of the court building in Gozo.”
“Labour Ministers have completely failed to perform over the last 9 years. This is an injustice to these public officials,” Aquilina added.
A Labour government has been promising one election after another to build a new court building in Gozo, Aquilina said. “The political feud between Anton Refalo, Justyne Caruana and Clint Camilleri who have all at one time or another served as Ministers for Gozo in the last 9 years, has led to a change in the plans for the new building of the Court in Gozo. repeatedly and so far there is no indication of when this project will start to be carried out.”
The Labour Government, Aquilina said, has “completely abandoned the field of justice in Gozo, so much so that for the first time in history the lawyers practising in Gozo organised a strike that lasted for a number of weeks.”
“The Opposition continues to insist on decisive and urgent action to rectify the situation in the Gozo Court, however, this should not be done by shifting criminal liability on public officials instead of bearing political responsibility by those who have been responsible for the field of justice in Gozo for the last 9 year,” Aquilina said.
The Opposition insisted that the Minister for Justice Jonathan Attard “should take the decision to stop using the Gozo building as he knows that this is not a safe place for all those who use it.”
Failure to do so, said Aquilina, “will confirm that the charges against the two public officials are unfair and made solely to avoid bearing political responsibility.”
