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18 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR Matthew Vella MANAGING EDITOR Saviour Balzan Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 FEBRUARY 2019 18 February 2009 Soldier's death: Ability to swim not a prerequisite IT is among the toughest forms of military training, but swimming is not a prerequisite for selection into the Armed Forces' C 'Special Du- ties' Company. The death of Private Matthew Psaila, believed to have been submerged for 10 minutes after disappearing into Chadwick Lakes during a military exercise, has sparked questions on how the young soldier, who was undergoing intense training, did not know how to swim. Relatives of the 19-year-old soldier have stated that Psaila could not swim, while it is still an open question whether AFM commanding officers were aware he was unable to swim. But army sources have confirmed that swim- ming is not a prerequisite for joining the C 'Spe- cial Duties' Company, the AFM's rapid reaction elite force that is deployed for high-risk opera- tions such as anti-terrorism missions. Deemed to prepare soldiers for some very dangerous missions, the C-Company's selection process appears, however, not to test any appli- cants over their suitability for the water. "As a highly trained infantry company, the soldiers are turned into a physically top-notch unit. It is likely that anyone incapable of swim- ming would have been eliminated throughout the training programme," an army source said. "It is a natural process that those who are un- able to take the drill and the physical and psy- chological pressure, fail to meet the standards and are eventually dropped," the same source said. Questions have now been raised as to whether a more thorough pre-selection process could determine suitable candidates to undergo the rigorous military training. The basic requirements to join the AFM as a gunner include physical fitness, being over 18 years of age, a Maltese citizen, a clean police conduct, have a minimum height of 1.57m for males and 1.52m for females, and a secondary level of education. Psaila's family remains in the dark as to whether his commanding officer was aware he could not swim, or whether he was last in line as the soldiers trudged through Chadwick Lakes against the current on a cold winter's day. The AFM has declined any official comment since Psaila's death is now the subject of a mag- isterial inquiry and an internal inquiry. Psaila was undergoing a course leading to the qualification of an infantryman. Last Friday, a nine-soldier unit in combat gear, carrying a 20kg backpack and their rifle were on an exer- cise at Chadwick Lakes. The soldiers were wad- ing through the water in the lake, that can reach a depth of nearly two metres. It is believed Psaila spent ten minutes under- water before his fellow soldiers pulled him out of the water. His family believes Psaila could have panicked as the unit approached a tight tunnel. MaltaToday 10 years ago Quote of the Week Malta's tuna trade needs to be publicly investigated Editorial ''I was accessible to all of them in the same way as was my duty.'' Suspended Fisheries Director Andreina Fenech Farrugia IT is, up to a point, reassuring to know that a police investigation into tuna bribery allega- tions, and the alleged involvement of fisheries director Andreina Fenech Farrugia, has been ongoing since October… and that a magisterial inquiry has since been opened. But given the severity of the implications, and the fact that the tuna ranching industry has been the subject of numerous similar suspicions in the past, the time has clearly come for a full public inquiry into this particular industry. According to the Spanish police, transcripts of phone taps revealed the extent of Fenech Far- rugia's alleged involvement in trying to appease the requests for higher fish quotas industry operators: including Spanish tuna impresario Jose Fuentes, who has subsidiary companies in Malta, trading under the name Mare Blu, that operate offshore tuna farms. In one conversation, Fenech Farrugia is re- corded asking Fuentes for payment. This led Spanish investigators to believe that Fenech Farrugia may have used her role as direc- tor of fisheries to regularise tuna catches that surpassed strict international quotas. (At one point, she was asked by Fuentes to increase his company's fishing quota from 3,000 tonnes to 4,000 tonnes.) But the questions span much more than these latest indications. Just over 10 years ago, this newspaper ran a series of articles about dis- crepancies in Malta's official re-export figures for bluefin tuna: a fish that fetches exorbitant prices on the international markets, especially in Japan. It was alleged at the time that Malta may have been involved in an international tuna launder- ing operation, whereby illegally caught tuna was 'regularised' by passing it off as part of other countries' (including Malta's) quota. Clearly, this could not have been possible without the collusion of Maltese officials: especially, but not exclusively, the Fisheries Directorate. As those stories became the subject of mul- tiple lawsuits, no further investigation was car- ried out into the matter. It became clear that there were massive vested interests involved: if nothing else, the re-export figures themselves suggested a trade worth several hundred million euros. Even without more recent revelations, it re- mains inconceivable that an industry capable of generating such profits – and already subject to widespread international suspicion (for which evidence, in the form of export discrepancies, had been provided) – would remain uninvesti- gated to this day. But now that some form of inquiry is taking place, it is essential that the scope of investiga- tion is extended beyond the confines of the latest leaks. It is not enough to focus only on one official – the director of fisheries, Andreina Fenech Farrugia – without also examining the full context of a regulatory framework that is clearly flawed and malfunctioning. The investigation must also be viewed, for instance, in the context of a report published by the Auditor General last November – focus- ing on how the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture (DFA) carries out its inspectorate functions. The AG's office found that "the vast majority of Malta's fishing fleet" was not equipped with tracking devices such as the Automatic Identifi- cation System (AIS), Vessel Monitoring system (VMS), and the General Pocket Radio Service (GPRS): all devices which are installed on ves- sels (depending on size) licensed to fish for protected species. The audit concluded that the "DFA has prac- tically no means by which to remotely monitor the movements of a very large portion of the local fishing fleet". Apart from a lack of data and equipment, the Auditor General also noted that mandatory inspections were not taking place. Only six in- spections targeting six vessels were carried out in 2017, and a single inspection on one vessel was conducted at sea between January and June 2018. As a result, a substantial percentage of Maltese fishing vessels were found to be operat- ing without any regular supervision at all. This is all symptomatic of a regulatory au- thority – in this case, the Directorate of Fisher- ies – which is failing in its primary objectives. There is also a European dimension to this failure: as an EU member state, Malta is obliged to implement the Commission's recovery plan for bluefin tuna (a plan that was drawn up un- der the tenure of Maltese Commissioner Joe Borg). The implementation of this plan depends largely on adequate supervision of all aspects of the industry: from the individual fishing vessels involved, to the precise quantities of tuna that may be officially listed under the quota system each year. On a separate note, it is worrying, too, that even the director herself seems to think that an increase in one's share of a national quota can be 'bought and sold', like tuna at a market. Dr Fenech Farrugia seems to be arguing that it is legitimate for an operator to pay the Maltese regulator to increase his quota. If that is indeed the case (and given the absence of proper scru- tiny, it is hard to know for certain), it clearly defeats the whole point of having a state regula- tor in the first place. And besides, such a system can also be seen to be a recipe for corruption at all levels. There is, simply put, too much that stinks about this business. Only a full, public national inquiry can possibly clear the air.