Editorial • December 21 2003

Perhaps a softer, more subtle Austin Gatt

Dr Austin Gatt is not a useless minister. He is a capable no nonsense minister with a deep-rooted appreciation that words have an expiry date as do the actions that follow. Yet, in the case of both PBS and his commentary on the running of Government-owned companies, he has been over indulgent in the use of words.
The proposal for example that the newsroom at Television Malta can survive with four or five people is ludicrous and downright banal.
Comparing TVM to NET is silly, considering that NET has lost so much money. So is the proposal that everything at PBS is to be farmed out.
If Malta is to choose between spending one million on an embassy abroad with forty bubbling staff members and offering a public radio and television service…then undoubtedly it has to be a public audiovisual service. If Malta is to choose between attending every single EU conference and seminar and sponsoring culture on radio and TV then it has to be the latter.
Yet, Dr Gatt’s unforgettable piece was his parliamentary outburst on the performance of government companies. His comments contribute in a very big way in painting dark blotches over the so-called exploits of former Minister Josef Bonnici.
Minister Gatt listed a whole load of facts on how EneMalta, Air Malta and Maltacom had exceeded the boundaries of normality. He quoted directors’ fees without mentioning names. But the names are known to all. He cited as an example the salary of Louis Grech without mentioning the man’s name. Mr Grech, an MLP candidate for the European Parliament elections is reported to have received a yearly salary of Lm56,000 as Air Malta chairman.
This newspaper asked Minister Gatt this very week for a breakdown of Mr Grech’s salary but our Gozo-born minister suggests we ask Air Malta for the details. This is undeniably a silly way of treating the press after such high-profile regurgitation spewed onto Mr Grech.
Dr Gatt, if we are to believe him, quotes uncollected monies at EneMalta amounting to Lm44 million. His diatribe continues to add more nasty adjectives to the administrative prowess of former Economic Services minister Josef Bonnici. If only the Nationalist Party had a Vigilance and Discipline board just like the MLP, Minister Gatt could have easily been tried for extending ridicule on his former cabinet colleague. More so since Minister Gatt was there when it all happened.
And that brings us to the question of collective responsibility.
The PN party machine vents many perceptions. When it suits it, the idea of ‘collective responsibility’ is utilised and quoted at all times. Some ministers are given all the press they need and others are side-tracked. When it does not, decisions are redirected to individual ministers to avoid spreading the muck around.
Prof Josef Bonnici may not have been the most up-and-coming of cabinet ministers. The electorate saw this during the last election. But he is certainly not wholly to blame for the ailments in his former ‘department.’
The decision on the salary of Mr Louis Grech was certainly known to everyone including the Prime Minister, so why all the fuss now? And what about the other chairmen at Air Malta before Mr Grech? Were they too on the recently reported miserly remuneration of Lm7,000 that is apparently paid to current Air Malta chairman Lawrence Zammit?
Dr Gatt has much to offer in Government especially when it comes to changes and reform. But he must tread carefully. In reforming PBS he must appreciate that the commercial aspect must not reign supreme. Dr Gatt - you should reform PBS but don’t destroy the role of public broadcasting.
When it comes to the parastatal companies, he has all the support he can dream of from this newspaper and the public in general. But he should go about his major surgery with the full knowledge that in this particular case all the fingers of blame are pointing in one direction and the address reads: 16 years of Nationalist government.