PBS managers balk at ad barter for Eurovision cruise

The board of directors of the Public Broadcasting Services has received allegations that CEO John Bundy ignored warnings from managers against a hefty advertising barter for a free cruise for participants of the Eurovision Song Contest. As national broadcaster, PBS assumes responsibility for the spectacular to select the national participant for the European television and musical bonanza.

The PBS board has learnt that at a managers’ meeting, Bundy went into a vulgar outburst on being told that the advertising barter for a paid cruise holiday for the Eurovision contenders, would raise eyebrows.

Bundy was faced by the concerns at the meeting with financial controller Brian Galea, corporate services manager Edmund Tabone and sales manager Mario Micallef.

“He said ‘I couldn’t give a toss about the board’,” MaltaToday’s source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

The proposal was for a barter with tour agent Hamilton Travel, who would grant TVM a cruise holiday for the participants of the Eurovision qualifiers, in return for several minutes of television advertising.

Bundy has already been accused of breaching procurement regulations with an unprecedented €500,000 car-leasing contract with Burmarrad Commercials for eight years. The PBS board are now requesting that an independent inquiry establish the extent to which these rules were broken.

“Bundy called in the management to give them a piece of his mind. It is not clear whether he has yet changed tack and backed down on the idea of the free cruise,” the source said.

News of Bundy’s outburst reached the PBS board at a time when, in another development, an internal email correspondence in which the CEO calls PBS chairman Tonio Portughese a “f***ing liar” was passed on to the Office of the Prime Minister.

Portughese, long respected in the field of human resource management, has already been told by the other directors that Bundy does not enjoy their confidence.

At a meeting held last month, the PBS directors expressed a unanimous decision of no confidence in Bundy during a secret vote, but fell short of dismissing him.

Bundy has hung on to his post, having stayed in the public eye as he promotes TVM’s new programme schedule and in publicity shots with the PM’s wife Michelle Muscat during a recent breast cancer charity event.

Last week MaltaToday reported that Bundy was questioned by the board of directors about programmes produced in-house at TVM, that were being planned for a farm-out to a private studio in Tarxien. The same studio had previously hosted a daytime TV production anchored by Bundy, years before his appointment.

At the meeting the PBS directors learned of a decision to have the popular daytime show TVAM, Niskata and Illum ma’ Steph farmed out to private studio Timecare. It was through the intervention of the board that TVAM was kept at the TVM studios.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has already said that it was up to the PBS board to take a decision to dismiss him. Short of a straight dismissal, the PBS board decided to appoint an ad hoc inquiry to determine Bundy’s culpability in the alleged breach of procurement rules on car leasing.

The deal, which included Bundy’s own company car, was never green-lit by the board.

Directors said in minutes seen by MaltaToday that the issue had only been raised at board level once, back on 18 January, 2017, when Bundy referred to the PBS car fleet. “[He] noted that the cars were now old. He had sought advice on whether to buy new cars or go for leasing, and found that it was cheaper to go for leasing.”

Bundy was said to have used a procurement method employed only for minor purchases, by obtaining three quotations from leasing suppliers.

The person actually responsible for procurement, Edmund Tabone, and financial controller Brian Grech, were completely side-lined.