Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1082991
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 FEBRUARY 2019 YANNICK PACE AN action plan for the Fish- eries Department to imple- ment recommendations made to it by the National Audit Office (NAO) has been drawn up and has started to be implemented, according to Fisheries Parliamentary Secretary Clint Camilleri. "An action plan has already been drawn up by the Depart- ment to start implementing the recommendations out- lined in the report," Camilleri told MaltaToday. Back in November, the NAO published a report from an investigation of the depart- ment's inspectorate function in which it found various "inefficiencies and ineffec- tive practices" that were un- dermining the department's efforts to regulate the sector. The audit found that the department was nonetheless facing challenges related to "human resources; a limited presence on the ground and at sea; cumbersome docu- mentation and reporting sys- tems; risk attribution; and its dual role as operator and regulator". "If the 64 vacant positions (over the current staff com- plement of 119) are truly needed and justified, NAO opines that the department finds itself in a situation of se- vere understaffing and conse- quently it cannot be expected to carry out its mandate to its fullest extent," read the re- port. This was especially true giv- en that a significant propor- tion of the vacancies were for inspectorate staff. The report also questioned claims by the department that the great number of va- cancies was due to salary packages not being attrac- tive enough for prospective applicants, who would need to work on a shift basis with specific conditions. "It is not something with is unique to this designation but can be commonly found in other public service positions in grades [that are] at least as high," the NAO observed. A spokesperson for the sec- retariat echoed the depart- ment in asserting that it was challenging to find and re- tain staff, especially given the "national economic success". However, the spokesperson said the secretariat would be "putting forward the NAO's recommendations to a com- petent entity responsible for collective bargaining for their consideration". "Independently, we are also looking into the broader ele- ments of the Department's current structure and opera- tions, identifying how best these should be reformed to better address today's chal- lenges and requirements," the spokesperson said, add- ing that this was "high on the agenda". Also contributing to a lack of effectiveness on the part of the department, according to the NAO, was the fact that a significant amount of infor- mation was being recorded and kept in "paper-based format". This, the NAO said, "creates considerable, other- wise avoidable laboriousness for the department to man- age any of this information". "The NAO is significantly concerned by the depart- ment's decision to further reduce digitisation of this in- formation…thereby decreas- ing the department's fac- ulty of extracting trends and other collated information which may be invaluable for it to take informed decisions on any way forward." Another concern raised by the NAO related to the de- partment's capacity for mon- itoring fishing activities. "NAO is concerned that the vast majority of profes- sional fishing vessels are not equipped with such [vessel monitoring] systems," one section of the report read. It added that the depart- ment "has practically no means by which to remotely monitor the movements of a very large portion of the local fishing fleet". The NAO said that ves- sels which are not equipped with tracking devices, pose the risk of them going at sea and engaging in fishing activ- ity out of the official seasons without being tracked by the department. "Apart from this principle of limited visibility, NAO here also perceives unfair treat- ment towards fishermen who officially declare their inten- tion to target protected spe- cies while other equally capa- ble vessels which deceivably fail to declare such intentions are left untracked." Fenech Farrugia had told MaltaToday at the time that while it was true that some vessels did not have an on board tracking system, the equipment was not missing from any vessel that was le- gally obliged to have one. With regards to the obser- vation by the NAO that the department's operational and regulatory functions should be separated, the spokesper- son insisted that the depart- ment was autonomous. The secretariat pointed to a number of measures in recent years that had "laid down a more effective system", in- cluding a 2017 legal notice on Blue Fin Tuna Harvesting with introduced "additional controls to deter abuse". Finally, the spokesperson said it was also "pertinent to highlight" that any identified discrepancies have always been reported to the police. NEWS vested fish." The same fisherman alleged that tuna farms were using the same BCDs multiple times, that certain fish farms were carrying more than double the allowed quota, and that they were setting illegally-caught tuna free. "When the tuna is harvested and sold in pieces, the BCD is not corresponding to the sepa- rate pieces of meat but to the fish itself… that is why they are using the BCDs multiple times, allowing them to pass off ille- gally harvested fish. "The fisheries department should be able to carry out reconciliation exercises that ensure the weight of fish listed on BCDs tallies with the total weight of the meat sold: I know that the reconciliation this year revealed that everybody was well over their quota, but they were still allowed to harvest the illegally caught tuna." He said that any serious crim- inal investigation would have instantly seized the files at the San Lucjan aquaculture centre. Another fisherman explained what tuna ranchers can do with illegally harvested fish: "You cannot take a live tuna fish and weigh it. It is only when you harvest it that you can know its weight. As you start har- vesting and cutting up the fish, you realise that you are close to reaching your quota – and that means, you will have to set loose all the rest of the tuna in- side the ranch. So what do they do? Instead of setting it loose, you harvest it and sell the meat on the black market in Italy… which will eventually pass through France and finally ar- rive in Spain." Indeed, it was a similar pas- sage that led Spanish investi- gators to discover a massive multi-million tuna laundering operation that spread from It- aly to Spain, right to the door of the Fuentes tuna farmers in Cartagena. A former department em- ployee who spoke to MaltaTo- day also admitted that BCDs, which are issued by the depart- ment for each single tuna fish harvested, were being falsified or used multiple times for dif- ferent tuna fish. "You can get four fish having used the same BCD… two go to Japan, and the other two go to Spain," the former employee said, ad- mitting to the potential over- abundance of harvested tuna in Malta. Andreina Fenech Farrugia refused to explain why she was using a Spanish telephone line, paid by Fuentes, to speak to the Spanish tuna ranching giant Fisheries undermined by ineffective practices Departmental reform after NAO inquiry underway, parliamentary secretary says "When the tuna is harvested and sold in pieces, the BCD is not corresponding to the separate pieces of meat but to the fish itself… that is why they are using the BCDs multiple times"