Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/204636
3 News maltatoday, SUNDAY, 3 NOVEMBER 2013 Government refuses to reveal Lou Bondi's remuneration JURGEN BALZAN FOUR months after appointing former TV presenter and old foe, Lou Bondi, on The Foundation for Maltese National Festivities, the government is still refusing to reveal how much the former PN employee is earning. In June, much to the Labour Party grassroots' dismay, Bondi was appointed on the foundation, chaired by academic and poet Oliver Friggieri. The committee, hand-picked by the Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, was given the task to overcome the partisan nature of national feasts and ensure that the whole country embraces all feasts. The man Labour loved to hate is rumoured to receive a handsome remuneration, however the Prime Minister's Office has refused to answer numerous questions on whether the 12 members on the foundation are being paid and if so, how much. Despite the Labour government pledging an open government which would strengthen the principles of transparency, accountability and access to government information, no answer whatsoever has been forthcoming. The appointment was met by incredulity by Labour stalwarts such as MEP Joseph Cuchieri and derision in other – markedly less hostile – quarters. For years, the presenter who worked for the Nationalist Party in the 90s, was a thorn in the Labour Party's side, often exposing the party's weaknesses and blunders in his programmes. However, this autumn Bondi will not grace our TV screens for the first time in almost two decades, after his programme Bondiplus was not selected by the national station for its autumn/winter schedule. His controversial appointment was widely perceived as a Machiavellian move by Muscat to legitimise the flurry of contentious appointments of Labour insiders in key positions and to neutralise one of his most vociferous critics. The expats' confusion increases as, according to the ARMS website, the new Form H – to update registered persons at a household – was only available to Maltese residents. According to the form's prerequisites, the applicants had to present a valid identity document: valid identity cards, residence documents and identification documents issued in terms of the Identity Card and other Identity Documents Act as well as valid passports. These, according to the ARMS website, were accepted as a means of identification for such purpose. But the expats who went over with their passports were soon told that the passport as means of proof would only be valid for Maltese nationals. "The left hand doesn't know what the right is doing and emails aren't responded to. Meanwhile, we are left in limbo," Graham said. In reply to questions sent by this newspaper over why the e-residence cards were not being accepted, the Ministry for Energy replied that the prevailing system accepted the e-card. "The prevailing system accepts passports as a means of identification of any customer applying for any service at ARMS," the spokesperson said. "As a means of validating a service, Maltese nationals are required to present their ID card whereas non-Maltese are required to provide the e-card issued by the Department for Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs." The spokesperson added that Lou Bondi, the man Labour loved to hate, is rumoured to receive a handsome remuneration Expats' frustration increases as ARMS refuses e- residence cards MIRIAM DALLI THE frustration suffered by European expats has reached new heights as some of them are now being told that the e-residence card was not being accepted because it has an expiry date. According to correspondence seen by MaltaToday, residence permits were now only being accepted if they come with a legal notice quoted at the bottom. "Residence Permit with an end date is not accepted. However residence permit with an end date are only accepted with a legal notice quoted at the bottom," an ARMS Ltd call centre agent told an enquiring expat. The expats' endless struggle to start paying residential utility rates, rather than domestic rates, started off with the decision that the EU residents had to obtain a new ID eresidence card. The ARMS class action group had long been complaining of discrimination imposed on EU citizens residing in Malta, particularly when it came to the significantly higher utility bills and bus fares than those charged to the Maltese. EU residents in Malta are charged higher rates because their Maltese residency is not accepted by Arms Ltd, the government's utility billing arm, on the basis of their identity card. But those who have finally managed to get their e-residence card and have applied for the residential rates are being told that the e-cards were not being accepted. One expat was told by an ARMS Ltd employee that ARMS was "not accepting documents with an expiry date". ARMS class action group spokesperson Patricia Graham described the endless frustration and struggle expats have to go through to obtain an e-residence card, "thousands" who for months have been waiting for an appointment to get their application processed. "The lack of communication between the government departments on this shambles has been diabolic: one week the receipt is accepted and the next it isn't. And nobody knows anything," Graham said. "One week the e-card is being accepted as proof residency, allowing consumers to change the higher domestic tariff with ARMS Ltd. The next week it's not." ARMS Ltd was also "in the process of reviewing the billing procedure established and applied by the previous administration, particularly insofar as this affects the choice of rates between domestic and residential". "The aim of the ongoing system review is to simplify and clarify the process, while ensuring that the system remains in full compliance local and European legislation," the ministry concluded. Meanwhile, the expats have repeatedly been told by the European Commission that the possession of a Maltese ID card may not be requested as a prerequisite for the completion of any administrative formality or, of the exercise of a right, as the rights of EU citizens are conferred to them directly by the Treaty. "These rights cannot be subjected to the possession of a document issued by the host member state," a spokesperson for the European Commission had told them in reply to several questions raised by the expats. According to the Commission, proof of right of residence in Malta and any right connected to it, can be proven by any means of proof such as a work contract, former and current pay slips, utility bills and so forth. However, ARMS Ltd is not accepting such evidence as means of proof and has even turned down copies of property deeds in the EU nationals' requests to update the number of persons living in a household. Austria/Belgium/Bulgaria/Czech Republic/ Denmark/Estonia/France/Germany/Hungary/ Italy/Luxemburg/Norway/Netherlands/ Poland/Portugal/Romania/Spain/ Slovakia/Slovenia/Sweden/Switzerland INTERNATIONAL FREIGHT SERVICES +356 21 221 999 expresslogigroup.com