25 September 2007 Rating 29% No Comment  

The Gozo Minister, Giovanna Debono, has said that the Malta Labour Party is twisting the facts when commenting about the drainage treatment project in Gozo. The Minister was replying to a statement made by MLP spokesperson Anton Refalo, she said that the claim that the project was losing €3 million in EU funds was not true. "The MLP does not know, or is conveniently forgetting, that the nature of the project is such that the major payments are effected towards the later stages of the project rather than in the early phases," the Minister said. She added that, to this day, €3.097 million in EU funds had been processed and thus the payments figure quoted in the MLP statement was not relevant. Minister Debono also added that it was not true that the Government had asked twice for an extension to the date of completion, as in reality such a request had been made only once and this had been accepted by the European Commission.