Education and employment minister Evarist Bartolo has requested a ruling on claims made in parliament this evening by opposition leader Simon Busuttil.
Dr Busuttil said that Mr Bartolo "misled" parliament when he compared the community work scheme introduced by the previous administration with the current scheme that is to be administered by the General Workers' Union.
The opposition leader's claims stem from the fact that under the previous scheme, those who were benefitting from the programme remained on the unemployment registry, therefore they still received state benefits because they were considered to be unemployed.
The difference with the current scheme, Dr Busuttil said, was that those making use of the programme were struck off the unemployment registry, and were therefore considered to be in employment.
When asked if he would consider retracting his claim that the employment minister had misled parliament, Dr Busuttil refused, and said that Mr Bartolo would not respond to his statement because he was unable to.
"The minister wants to avoid answering questions about this obscene scheme he has introduced," he said.
This prompted Mr Bartolo to request a ruling by the Speaker, while transport minister Joe Mizzi requested an additional ruling to ascertain whether the opposition leader could make such statements and whether he could interject and put forward supplementary questions during question time.
The government work scheme being referred to, that is to be administered by the GWU, is a scheme that aims to assist the unemployed. GWU won the government tender for €980 per participant, with the total number of participants estimated to be roughly 600 people. It was found that the GWU would have a surplus of €115 per worker at the end of each month, but would have to incur administrative costs of €110 per worker at the end of each month.
from The Malta Independent http://ift.tt/2gFQFvc
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