The Prime Minister of Doublespeak, and a man who owes millions, to private companies and to the government itself, appointed by that Prime Minister to the board of PBS Ltd
You really must watch the video in the timesofmalta.com link below.
Christian Peregin of The Times challenges the prime minister about the appointments given to people who appeared on Labour billboards, while good and competent people like David Felice are replaced by individuals like Jason Micallef.
The prime minister replies that it doesn’t seem to him that Frank Portelli was on a Labour Party billboard, but he got a government appointment all the same.
No, Frank wasn’t on a Labour billboard. He was on much more, and worse, than that: on Super One TV, practically every other night, passing sarcastic and frequently vile remarks about Lawrence Gonzi’s government and ingratiating himself with the Labour Party politicians present with him on screen (“vera ta, ghandek ragun…bla bla bla”).
In fact, I fell out with him completely over this around October last, because it had reached the point where it was absolutely, utterly disgusting, and so transparently obvious that he was doing it spitefully, to cause harm and to cosy up to Labour because they were getting into power and he had and still has a hospital to sell.
He denied this, of course, but I just said that neither of us was born yesterday and he had no reason for being on Super One because he’s not a professional TV guest, paid for his appearances, nor is he an electoral candidate looking for votes, so there must be some other reason. You don’t do that kind of time-wasting thing for fun, which is why I never do it myself.
You shouldn’t be on Super One in the first place, I told him, let alone on Super One saying those things. How spiteful can you get, I said. You should be ashamed of yourself. We haven’t spoken since. And when I heard he’d been having lunch with Karmenu Vella round about that time, that really was the end of that.
So no, Frank Portelli wasn’t on a Labour billboard, but he was still rewarded for services rendered to the cause of Joseph Muscat, and he accepted because yes, he still has a hospital to sell and creditors banked up in rows against his door demanding to be paid.
And I would have said none of this had I not found his behaviour so utterly despicable and, beyond that, dishonourable. Owing vast amounts of money can force people to clutch at straws, but even in that bad situation, a man has got to keep his self-respect. It’s the only way to keep what remains of the respect of others.
Frank Portelli’s appointment to the board of directors of Public Broadcasting Services Ltd is the reward we can see. I trust there is no concomitant or upcoming reward, concealed from public view.
And I have something to say, too, about his being made a director of that board. It is not just unbelievably irresponsible, but also cavalier and an insult to all those people to whom he owes a great deal of money, who have taken him to court, obtained an executive title, and yet still can’t get paid.
A man who bankrupted his own business to the tune of millions, who has creditors whom he has been keeping at bay with promises of a hospital deal in the pipeline (that was late last year – who knows what is happening now), and whose house was put up for judicial auction a few months ago at the request of a company which has obtained an executive title on a large outstanding debt (the sale was stopped at the 11th hour), has no place on the board of any company at all, let alone a state company.
It is absolutely beyond shocking that this standards-shambles of a government has appointed to the board of the company which runs the state broadcaster a man who owes millions, including huge sums to the government itself, and whose salvation from filing for bankruptcy, or having bankruptcy forced upon him, depends on the sale of his company’s assets to that same government.
When I think about the fuss that sham Muscat encouraged people to make over Tonio Fenech’s cheap and stupid clock (and here I mean no offence to the lady who made it), I despair at the fact that these mind-boggling scandals go unremarked upon.
Yes, this is the man who Joseph Muscat has appointed director of the board of PBS Ltd: somebody who owes shocking amounts of money to an army of creditors including the government, whose company hasn’t filed its accounts for years, and who has been playing off one party against another in the hope that somebody will buy his hospital either as a favour or because he’s agitating on Super One.
Joseph Muscat? If I were one of those who’d voted to put him where he is today, I wouldn’t be able to look at myself in the mirror. ‘Malta taghna lkoll’ already sounds like the taunt of ridicule.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130530/local/political-corruption-cases-no-longer-time-barred.471849
And all that when it was the PL in Opposition that shot down the government deal to lease/purchase Frank Portelli’s hospital, at a time when the Opposition itself was criticizing the government over the lack of an adequate number of beds in state hospitals.
But now Frank Portelli has a problem. The present government doesn’t have money to buy his hospital especially now with the excessive budget procedure. Bil-Malti ser jibqa b’xiber immnieher.
Scicluna needs to come up with a solution to make up for the EUR 6 million annual increase in the cost of the cabinet and all the promises made before the election. Revenue will not make up for these increases, while the projected deficit by the end of this year is 3.7%, probably more.
Scicluna seems obsessed with education and health costs, which indicates that there is no room to purchase a new hospital and add to the operational costs in the health sector.
Acquiring a new hospital would be highly irresponsible at this juncture, irrespective of the deal struck between Portelli and Muscat before the election.
Another cost-cutting exercise will be the consolidation and merger of public schools disguised under the experiment to introduce co-ed schools in Malta.
This initiative has nothing to do with either education methods or the pupils themselves. Public schools are going to be decreased through a consolidation exercise, with a higher number of pupils attending each school in order to decrease the total maintenance bill of public schools.
The closed schools premises will be sold off for other projects, probably to the same contactors who financed the MLP election campaign. All this will be done with the blessing of the MUT, given that their ex-leader has been given a cosy assignment.
Bil-Malti nghiduha isbah….
Tisimghu jitkellem, tahsbu xempju ta’ l-irgulija.
Izda m’hemmx kelma ohra ghal dan il-laqghi. OPPORTUNIST. Issa forsi jkollu cans jirranga xi deal mal-gvern fuq l-isptar.
Daphne, by any chance, is the MP Marthese Portelli his daughter?
[Daphne – OF COURSE NOT.]
How was this guy allowed to be on the PN’s ticket in the 2009 EP elections?
How were Franco Debono and JPO allowed to stand for election?
Well, I think the PN somewhere forgot that they need to be very selective about who they allow on the party ticket.
Agree absolutely.
But this lack of shame unfortunately seems to have become the norm in society these days, especially in people who are supposed to give an example through their lifestyle and actions!
We can start with some of the recent cases involving judges, and move on to politicians – including, in all fairness quite a few on the PN side too.
For instance, there I was in a long queue at a public event, waiting patiently in line when I see “friends of friends” being invited to jump the queue. Such irresponsible and selfish actions (and I have seen others believe me) simply leave me speechless but seething with anger..
More? Well, I don’t think that a certain prominent person – who was later shown to have asked others to perjure themselves in court – should ever have been proposed as a candidate.
And no, I do not think that our ex-Finance Minister should ever have taken that trip to watch that football match or even accepted that darned clock.
And that business of registering people’s address as being on one’s garage just so that they could vote for me? Well exactly how can this be acceptable to anyone with half a brain? And on and on it goes in one long and seemingly never ending litany of selfishness and lack of any respect towards the image of one’s party (which one pays lip service to!).
Bottom line? Obviously what is Bad can never be called Good, no matter who does it. But – perhaps less obviously -the many eventually always seem to pay for the sins of the few.
Very true Joe. The PN has been too lax in its choice of candidates – besides this guy, we should not forget that horror Franco Debono, the unprincipled JPO, and that incompetent Jesmond Mugliett.
Tonio Fenech’s and Claudio Grech’s embarrassing antics haven’t helped much either.
Frank Portelli was right about many things. But everyone seems to miss the main point in this story: He was a president of a number of PN committees, the last thing he ought to have done, is be talking like he did -for a number of years- had he really the PN party at heart. He definitely lowered his profile by trying to rid himself of St. Philip’s in a flash, knowing very well that the solution to his private problems lied with the Gonzi administration. What is even more unethical, the feeding into the government system of the thought that St. Philip’s acquisition would solve or alleviate some of the problems at Mater Dei. All of this whilst preaching otherwise of the system at Mater Dei, its’ administration and Gonzi’s government. would he like to have the cake and eat it? Yes. But more importantly he expected the Gonzi government to hand it to him on a silver plate. One would think, that after him being an MP for a number of years especially running up to ’92, he would have understood that an administration does not solely depend on the minister but also on the little gathering of ministerial vultures: ultimately Gonzi’s only real fault.
Jaqq xi bniedem. Zatat, pruzuntus u fallut.
Sell, sell, sell St.Philip’s
Gently on Super One.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.
With this year’s deficit expected to climb to 3.7%, Muscat is not in a position to buy St.Philp’s hospital.
Daphne, the way the courts ruled over the years, I get the impression that Portelli is not losing any sleep. I have the feeling he has cushioned himself very well. His creditors on the other hand must be losing big.
[Daphne – The problem does not lie with the courts. The courts can’t create money where there is none. Once you have an executive title through a court ruling, there has to be something to seize.]
X’ ezistenta miskina. Ic-cirkostanzi jgieghluh jilghaq is-srum , l-aktar kull hames snin qabel elezzjoni generali.
In Maltese we say ; Wiccu u so*mu xorta!
What a shame!
Ara jigix biex jigbrulu l-voti minn H’Attard! Ja gakbin!
Ghandna bzonn mizbla ohra barra dik ta’ Sant Antnin.
Despicable! A man without principle. One might disagree with the Government but to go on an opposition station and blurt out abuse, all for the sake of selling one’s soul and hospital, is a sheer embarrassment and pure lack of self-respect.
However, all this is futile. The present government will not enter into an agreement with Frank over St. Philip’s.
Edward Scicluna’s primary aim is to reduce spending and bring the deficit within the normal parameters without concealing debt figures and without piling on health and education costs on an already burdened welfare state.
We are aware that the Government owes astronomical amounts to pharmaceutical companies to finance our health system and this is giving these same companies powerful leverage to retain the price of medicines way above the European average.
This mentality of Maltese governments, be it who it may, to continue to throw tax money at problems has to stop: golden handshakes to the dry docks, golden handshakes to Air Malta and bank employees are all a burden on the state and it is ultimately the tax payer who is footing the bill.
Bit of an idiot is he, it’s not as if we couldn’t see right through him.
Which is exactly why he can’t get a deal through.
At least Josie made it work without using the party. It’s how it’s done, Frank, no insurance cover.
No wonder you hate everyone’s guts.
Opportunist prim iehor dan Portelli.
Jifhem tant fis-sahha, Guzep Muscat poggieh fil-bord ta’ PBS biex ipattilu ftit ta’ kemm il-darba deher fuq is-SuperOne.
Mela mastrudaxxa tibghatu jahdem ta’ haddied? Tal-genn, man.
Frank Portelli, Franco Debono, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, Jesmond Mugliett, Robert Musumeci, John Dalli are the core of the true evil clique.
They must be shown as what they are by the PN so that people are not be fooled by their antics. The constraints that existed before the general election are no longer there.
And Robert Arrigo must never again accept to go on One TV harming the PN like he did during the last years.
A vicious rat will claw at anything when cornered.