Last year's surplus turned into a deficit - Adrian Delia

It was just a short journey from Freedom Mount in Vittoriosa where he had just taken part in the national celebrations of Freedom Day to Kalkara where he addressed a PN rally.
But Adrian Delia made a connection between the two events. On Freedom Day we celebrate Malta getting rid of the foreigner, Dr Delia told his supporters. But under this government we have not got rid of the foreigners at all but rather they are more numerous than ever and now we are being told by the prime minister himself that without them we may forget about our pensions.
Somebody just handed him some documents about non-EU citizens who are being brought in. They are paid €4.50 an hour and make some €700 a month but €200 are deducted and they pay €0.55 in taxes. So Maltese pensioners are being paid by these foreigners just 55 cents a month. These foreigners barely make €400 a month.
Delia mentioned the Budget Speech, made around Halloween, in which the government had said Malta would be making a surplus in 2018. But the figures are now out and it results that Malta had ended the year with a deficit of €16 million, an €80 million difference between the promised surplus and the actual deficit.
But the imperturbable Minister of Finance has said the deficit came about because of some capital expenditure. How come that the government could not anticipate spending more on capital expenditure over the last two months of the year?
Next Dr Delia focused on the Moneyvall report. Malta has faced the Moneyvall Report some five times but this time the report authors are not looking a the laws on paper but at how the laws are implemented.
If over the next couple of months the government did not work some miracle, then Malta will be condemned by the final draft of the report and Malta will become black-listed. Being black-listed will be very harmful in attracting financial investments or gaming companies.
There is now another very serious report about Malta - the Greco Report but this can only be revealed if the government gives its permission. He challenged and demanded that the prime minister allows the publication of this report, unlike what the PM did with the Egrant Report.
The Labour Party has taken over all the institutions - as witnessed by the recent appointments at MFSA, at AFM, in the lawcourts where 17 of the last 18 appointments were made from people near the government.
At the beginning of his speech, Dr Delia referred to the main story on Il-Mument which referred to land at St George's Bay which the government had wished to transfer to the private sector during the Christmas holidays but was stopped from doing so by the Opposition. 
Minister Konrad Mizzi has not given up and the same deal has now reappeared before the parliamentary audit committee. The Opposition will again oppose this deal.

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