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Romwald Lungaro Mifsud’s portrayed his resignation from MTA as his crowning moment. The dubious honour is probably shared with Winston Zahra
Matthew Vella
Hearing Romwald Lungaro Mifsud announce his resignation, the impression was that the chairman of the Malta Tourism Authority was announcing yet more exciting prospects for the beleaguered authority.
Lungaro Mifsud, 15 months at the head of an authority turned into everybody’s favourite punching bag, will be stepping down in August. Before announcing the expected, he reports his triumphs in corporate and concise fashion. He says reforming MTA according to the wishes of the Deloitte recommendatory report had been accomplished.
There’s impatience until he gets to the point. Last week, MaltaToday broke the news that Lungaro Mifsud had decided to resign back in March 2006, but minister Francis Zammit Dimech had told him to reconsider. Now he wants out.
Not that Lungaro Mifsud may have had many supporters. Winston Zahra, former president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, called for both the chairman and minister’s heads in the wake of worrying results for tourism in the first quarter. With one of the biggest hoteliers who carries clout at the MHRA without even holding the presidency, against the man entrusted with bringing 150,000 tourists over three years, chairmanship at the MTA was no mean feat.
In fact, the way he speaks is as if he is addressing his triumphs at the MTA to all his detractors. So did he feel his position had been prejudiced by Zahra’s lack of support? Lungaro Mifsud, playing by his statement that his mission at the MTA had been accomplished – rather than vanquished – says there was nothing of the sort.
“Zahra has his opinion and I have mine,” the outgoing chairman says, saying his position was not destabilised by the lack of support. “I always had the support of my staff and the ministry.”
But the fact is also that Lungaro Mifsud’s tenure of the MTA was rendered less tenable by the lack of support from some of the biggest tourism entrepreneurs at the start of his term.
His appointment by Zammit Dimech became the source of disagreement between the minister and the implementation team entrusted with drawing up the plan to reform MTA, namely Winston Zahra, George Micallef and Sam Mifsud – the team had refused the nomination of Lungaro Mifsud to managing director three times.
In his letter of appreciation after terminating their mandate, Zammit Dimech wrote how the restructuring process in fact “hinged on the recruitment” of a managing director.
“I was adamant from the start that an Authority that carries the onus of leading one of the main pillars of our economy should have nothing but the best. Regretfully, our best efforts proved futile.”
Despite consultation with the team, the decision to appoint an executive chairman was in fact taken after consultations with Cabinet and the Prime Minister.
When MaltaToday asked Zahra about the termination of the team’s mission, he claimed their term had just come to an end. Indeed, despite not denying his disagreement with Lungaro Mifsud’s appointment, he expressed full support to whoever heads MTA.
And yet, his statement made to MaltaToday last September, seemed to be truly portentous of Lungaro Mifsud’s future in Zahra’s own eyes, when asked about the new chairman’s performance:
“The assessment of any individual cannot be done before he’s appointed, or after two months. The assessment will be based on the implementation of the restructuring and on the results achieved. This time next year we’ll be able to answer that question, but everyone has to be given the chance to prove himself.”
The prediction becoming reality, with uncanny timing, seems to truly prove Zahra’s clout in the tourism sector, and what Lungaro Mifsud was up to in the first place.
Now he is ready to go back to the Corinthia Hotels International, where he built his career before taking on his handsome Lm25,000-salary post at the MTA. He did manage to do the necessary at MTA – eliminating its ludicrous bureaucracy, organising 180 press trips to the island, marketing the island at every international tourism fair, starting off the branding exercise, motivating staff and saving Lm600,000 from other costs to boost marketing budgets.
But despite sounding triumphalist about having accomplished the restructuring at MTA, the tourism figures are not there. At least, not the ones government wanted. Lungaro Mifsud says these figures may be coming by 2007.
In fact, a journalist even asks him why he was resigning after all, if he felt that what he had done had been so positive. But Lungaro Mifsud says it was never his intention to occupy the position eternally, and now wants to pass the baton to someone else.
It’s the most proactive move by a government chairperson yet, but this chairperson has had his own troubles. Despite the full confidence of the minister who appointed him, he inherited an authority ridden with problems, territorial mentality, clashes, and competing interests from the private sector – a proper piece of little Malta squeezed into the corridors of the Auberge d’Italie. Nobody may blame Lungaro Mifsud for wanting out.
mvella@mediatoday.com.mt
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