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MW 19 April 2017

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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 19 APRIL 2017 News 8 TIM DIACONO THE Nationalist Party has rub- bished claims by health minister Chris Fearne that it plans to intro- duce fees for public healthcare if it is elected to government. Addressing a press conference at the Labour headquarters this af- ternoon, Fearne pounced on com- ments recently passed by former PN deputy leader Tonio Borg to Politico – that Malta will someday have to introduce fees for health- care. He warned that this comment betrayed the PN's scepticism on free healthcare and recounted how a previous PN cabinet had in 2004 discussed the possibility of intro- ducing copayment for healthcare. "This is a basic difference be- tween Labour and PN, and indeed a Labour government is the only guarantee for free healthcare," he said. "We fully believe that the health sector can be excellent, comprehensive and sustainable, while remaining free of charge." Labour MP Franco Mercieca added that PL considers free healthcare as an investment in people, arguing that the stronger people are the more they can work. In a statement, shadow health minister Claudette Buttigieg turned the tables on the Labour government and retorted that it is actually a PN government that is the sole guarantee for free health- care. "Joseph Muscat has privatised the dermatology and prosthetics services and sold off the Gozo, St Luke's and Karin Grech hospitals," she said. "Muscat, Konrad Mizzi and Chris Fearne sold our hospi- tals to a person [Ram Tumuluri] who has been implicated in fraud in Canada two days before they were given the go-ahead to open secret companies in Panama." Tonio Borg, a former EU health commissioner, told Politico last week that fees would eventually need to be introduced for health- care services in Malta. "The island's two major politi- cal parties have shied away from charging fees because the politi- cal cost would be enormous," he said. "That reluctance may have to give." After Borg's comments, the Na- tionalist Party reiterated its com- mitment towards freehealthcare. "For the PN, an essential part of the social contract in Malta is universal access to free public healthcare," a PN spokesperson told the Malta Independent. "This is why people pay their taxes – to get good public services when they need." 'PN wants to reverse healthcare successes' At the press conference, the two MPs continued down Labour's strategy of warning that the PN will reverse Labour's achieve- ments if it is elected to govern- ment – this time with a focus on healthcare. "The government spent €92 mil- lion on medicines last year, up from €64 million in 2012. Wait- ing lists for MRI have been slashed from two years to two years, for catatact operations from three years to three months, and for hip replacements from eight years to six months," Fearne said. "Simon Busuttil has criticised the government for increasing its recurrent expenditure, which means that if he wins, we will see the return of long hospital waiting lists, out of stock medicines, and patients treated in the corridors at Mater Dei." PN, Labour warn each other poses a threat to free healthcare Chris Fearne noted that former senior PN official had predicted end of free healthcare PN says Muscat must ask NAO to publish audit into government credit cards NAO investigation into ministerial credit card use has been finalised but not yet presented to the Speaker of the House MATTHEW VELLA THE Nationalist Party has called on Prime Minister Joseph Mus- cat to ensure that an investiga- tion by the Auditor General into the use of credit cards by govern- ment ministers, is published im- mediately. An own-initiative investiga- tion by the National Audit Office into the use of government credit cards by officials and ministers has been completed, but remains unpublished, MaltaToday report- ed on Sunday. The investigation was com- pleted some 10 months ago, but the NAO has not yet forwarded the inquiry to the Speaker of the House, where it would then be passed on to the public accounts committee. MaltaToday is informed that the audit completed an across- the-board survey of all credit card purchases employed by gov- ernment ministers, with some spends going into the thousands during visits abroad… to minor purchases such as fast-food stop- overs. The NAO did not deny the existence of the report when queried as to when it would be published: "The National Audit Office felt that the various inves- tigations mandated to the Office by the Public Accounts Commit- tee or the Minister for Finance should be given the highest pri- ority," a spokesperson for the NAO said – suggesting that the office was only granting those audits requested by the PAC im- portance. The PN said Joseph Muscat should ensure that the inquiry is published in the name of trans- parency and accountability. "It is in the people's interest to know how their tax money has been spent, and for an ex- planation to be given for every cent that was spent by minis- ters through government-issued credit cards. This is particularly important when previous audits revealed excessive spends on al- coholic drinks by the ministry of Chris Cardona," the PN said, re- ferring to the NAO annual audit into ministerial spends. "Now that it is confirmed that the investigation has been final- ised, the prime minister should ask the Auditor General to pub- lish the results of this investiga- tion." The NAO remains the island's sole independent institution to regularly monitor government spends and egregious use of tax- payers' money. Its annual report is an appointment for journal- ists to pore over spurious cases of public procurement, direct orders, and general wastage of resources. Undoubtedly, the highlight of last year's annual report was a €318 minibar bill for drinks con- sumed during an official visit to Dubai, where economy minister Chris Cardona gave an address in September 2015. The delega- tion that spent three nights in Dubai was f lagged by the NAO for a hotel bill that included a total of €756 on alcoholic bever- ages – €318 of which were from the mini-bar. After publication of the case, the ministry said that the ex- penses emanated from the pri- vate room of Cardona's chief of staff Mario Azzopardi, who ac- cepted to refund the expenses incurred because the purchase was not considered to be related to official business. The NAO was also irked that a "politically-exposed person" – no name identified – was given advances for use during visits abroad in the form of cash, when other travelling officers received theirs by means of a credit trans- fer. In nine out of 10 official and ministerial trips reviewed by the NAO for testing, the breakdown of spending failed to include the actual air fares of €29,000, and one three-day trip to Monaco in May 2015 did not include €8,000 in accommodation expenses. When the complete invoice for the Monaco trip was requested by NAO to verify the nature of any additional charges, the ministry for the economy said that the full documentation was not available and "probably misplaced".

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