PN will not sack Permanent Secretaries on election – Busuttil

Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil yesterday said that a new PN government would not sack all of the Permanent Secretaries upon election, like Joseph Muscat did.

Back in 2013 the Nationalist Party had blasted Prime Minister Joseph Muscat for removing every permanent secretary when he was elected into power.

Asked if he would do the same Dr Busuttil said: “We are ready to work with anyone who wants to be loyal to Malta and our electoral programme. We will not act like Joseph Muscat and clean house. If we see that there are permanent secretaries whose attitude show they do not want to work for Malta and for the programme, I will take responsibility and remove them.”

Moving on to the controversial citizenship-by-investment scheme introduced by Dr Muscat’s government, Dr Busuttil confirmed that a PN government would not up and halt the programme, but it would “clean it up” and assess any new conditions which would have to be enforced in order to curtail abuse.

Busuttil also spoke about the revelations that the new voting documents are defecting. He said the PN representatives on the Electoral Commission had agreed on security features. When the voting documents arrived it was noticed that these security features are not in fact in place because one can wipe off the ink.

He said the Prime Minister should shoulder the responsibility for this.