OPPOSITION INSINUATE NETTO INVOLVED IN DR GIRALDI HOME ‘COVER UP’
The GSLP Opposition yesterday again reiterated their claims that Social Services Agency failed to investigate a series of allegations made in relation to the Dr Giraldi Home and which formed the basis of the unfair dismissal suit in which Opposition Leader Joe Bossano acted for Joanna Hernandez.
And, producing no substantiated evidence other than the claims they have repeated, the Opposition openly implies that Government Minister Jaime Netto deliberately misled Parliament.
The Opposition states that in the course of the Budget session, Mr Netto, the chairman of the Social Services Agency, said that “all the complaints that were made before or during 2006 regarding alleged abuses at the Giraldi Home were properly investigated and appropriate action was taken”.
In turn the Opposition argues that this “statement is in fact contradicted by the evidence before the Industrial Tribunal and the previous statements issued by the RGP”.
“Either Mr Netto knows something that no one else in the Agency does or else he is deliberating lying in Parliament to cover the failure by the Agency,” says the Opposition, later adding that “no action was taken whatsoever to investigate the accuracy of the information provided” in the cases they cite.
“Since he is politically responsible for the Agency, we challenge Mr Netto to list the allegations made before or during 2006 which he claims have been properly investigated, by whom they were properly investigated and to say what was the appropriate action taken in each case, and by whom, and when all these investigations and action took place which no-one else appears to be aware of or has ever mentioned before,” said the Opposition.
The GSLP allegation is that a bundle of claims, relating to service users being subject to various forms of abusive behaviour, were brought to the notice of the CEO and the Agency in June 2005 and that “no action was taken whatsoever to investigate the accuracy of the information provided.” If the allegations detailed were proven they would indicate grounds to say that there may have been criminal behaviour or negligence.
The Opposition claims that none of the persons mentioned in the reports made were approached to establish the facts.
“We challenge Mr Netto to demonstrate otherwise, if the information that is contained in this report is not accurate. This is information that would have been made public during the course of the Tribunal if the Government had not conducted its defence of the complaint in a manner that ensured that the hearing never took place, first by spurious arguments to delay the holding of the hearing and finally by saying it was not able to prove that the reason for the dismissal was that Joanna Hernandez could not do her job, and not that she brought to light allegations made by others, that the Agency preferred not to have investigated,” said the Opposition statement.
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