Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/232206
26 Letters maltatoday, SUNDAY, 22 DECEMBER 2013 Send your letters to: The Editor, MaltaToday, MediaToday Ltd. Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 | Fax: (356) 21 385075 E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt. Letters to the Editor should be concise. No pen names are accepted. A question of professional behaviour We refer to the article entitled 'Central Bank – less cheer for the boys' which appeared in your newspaper on 11 December. The article has as its author George Mangion, representative of Risk Management Services Ltd (RMS), the company which bid unsuccessfully for the Central Bank of Malta's tender on a Survey on Household Finance and Consumption (HFCN) in Malta. Unfortunately, Mr Mangion is displaying rather unprofessional behaviour and a lack of common sense which is most disconcerting for the runner-up to the tender in question. Apart from being written in an offensive tone, the article contains a series of untruths, distortions, and misrepresentation of facts. In particular, the author attempts to cast doubts on the governance of the Bank, more specifically on the Bank's internal structures, which were established and reviewed over the years to ensure broad and prop- er discussion, at senior management level, of all strategic matters related to the Bank's business. In this regard, the author makes a number of inaccurate assertions concerning the Bank's carefully planned and ongoing strategy to upgrade its IT system to Eurosystem standards. As this project is still in the planning stage, the costs involved are still being assessed and no contracts have been concluded by the Bank with outside parties. The Bank remains surprised and concerned about how Mr Mangion could have access to confidential Bank information even if this is inaccurate. This raises the question whether during the HFCN tender process Mr Mangion also became privy to confidential information relating to this tender which would be highly unprofessional. In the remainder of his article, Mr Mangion continues to repeat at length his version of the procedures leading to the unsuccessful bid of Not involved in any meetings I refer to the article published in the 11 December edition of MaltaToday in which I am mentioned. I would like to make it clear that I was in no manner involved in the presentation of the 19 October 2009, did not arrange the meetings referred to in your newspaper and was not a consultant to Horizon at the time. Edward Cachia Caruana Attard his company to obtain the HFCN tender. On this issue, the Bank once again refers to its reply published in this newspaper on 8 December, where it was made clear that RMS was not awarded the HFCN contract because as Mr Mangion quotes in his article, "the applicant displayed serious technical deficiencies and limitations in its ability to carry out this project as requested… price was not the only consideration and limited technical competencies outweighed the price advantage." Thus the Bank reiterates that rather than persisting with his negative and offensive comments against the Bank and the tender evaluation panel, Mr Mangion should direct his efforts towards strengthening his own company and taking the necessary steps to address its technical deficiencies. It is unfortunate that the Bank was constrained to state in public the deficiencies encountered in Mr Mangion's unsuccessful bid in order to correct Mr Mangion's false accusations and the wrong impression given by Mr Mangion that his company, an SME among two other SME tenderers, emerged as the sacrificial lamb in of this tender process. It is worth noting that almost four years ago, when the first wave of the HFCN survey was organised in the euro area, another central bank awarded the HFCN contract to the cheapest tenderer that unfortunately could not deliver the desired quality. As a result this central bank had to re-launch the whole survey at short notice and at a huge cost given that the results of the survey needed to be comparable with those of other central banks. Clearly, what appeared as the cheapest tender proved many times more expensive to remedy the inability of the original winner of the contract to deliver the requested quality standard. A case where the cheapest is not always the best. It is our considered opinion that Mr Mangion is doing more harm to himself and his company when he appears oblivious to the high standards required to be achieved in this survey work, and instead launches baseless and totally unjustified attacks at the Bank and the Deputy Governor who was completely distanced from the work of the evaluation team. While the Bank is not willing to enter into an endless debate with Mr Mangion to counter his confused and distorted allegations, it categorically refutes all the insinuations made in his article and may be forced to take legal action against such blatantly false accusations, raising significant questions of professionalism on Mr Mangion's part. Stephen Attard Head Communications Department Central Bank of Malta Their own children While I am in favour of the civil unions bill, I do not agree with unconditional adoption. I see nothing wrong with homosexuals and lesbians adopting the biological children of their partners. Nor do I mind that a homosexual man would have a woman caring for their child and this woman and, if she wishes, her partner would adopt the child in question. This may give rise to more than two parents, but why would that matter? However I am strongly against homosexuals and lesbians adopting children to whom they have no biological link. Just tell me what would stop two paedophiles forming a civil union and adopting an orphan, with money they could corrupt the authorities involved? If the present legal system allows homosexuals to adopt orphans, the law should be changed. Josephine Gatt-Ciancio Kalkara Perhaps a softer, more subtle Austin Gatt EDITORIAL • 21 DECEMBER 2003 Dr Austin Gatt is not a useless minister. He is a capable, no-nonsense minister with a deep-rooted appreciation that words have an expiry date as do the actions that follow. Yet, in the case of both PBS and his commentary on the running of government-owned companies, he has been over-indulgent in the use of words. The proposal, for example, that the newsroom at Television Malta can survive with four or five people is ludicrous and downright banal. Comparing TVM to NET is silly, considering that NET has lost so much money. So is the proposal that everything at PBS is to be farmed out. If Malta is to choose between spending one million on an embassy abroad with forty bubbling staff members and offering a public radio and television service… then undoubtedly it has to be a public audiovisual service. If Malta is to choose between attending every single EU conference and seminar and sponsoring culture on radio and TV then it has to be the latter. Yet, Dr Gatt's unforgettable piece was his parliamentary outburst on the performance of government companies. His comments contribute in a very big way in painting dark blotches over the so-called exploits of former Minister Josef Bonnici. Minister Gatt listed a whole load of facts on how Enemalta, Air Malta and Maltacom had exceeded the bounda- ries of normality. He quoted directors' fees without mentioning names. But the names are known to all. He cited as an example the salary of Louis Grech without mentioning the man's name. Mr Grech, an MLP candidate for the European Parliament elections, is reported to have received a yearly salary of Lm56,000 as Air Malta chairman. This newspaper asked Minister Gatt this very week for a breakdown of Mr Grech's salary, but our Gozo-born min- ister suggests we ask Air Malta for the details. This is undeniably a silly way of treating the press after such high-profile regurgitation spewed onto Mr Grech. Dr Gatt, if we are to believe him, quotes uncollected monies at EneMalta amounting to Lm44 million. His diatribe continues to add more nasty adjectives to the administrative prowess of former Economic Services minister Josef Bonnici. If only the Nationalist Party had a Vigilance and Discipline board just like the MLP, Minister Gatt could have easily been tried for extending ridicule on his former cabinet colleague. More so since Minister Gatt was there when it all happened. And that brings us to the question of collective responsibility. The PN party machine vents many perceptions. When it suits it, the idea of 'collective responsibility' is utilised and quoted at all times. Some ministers are given all the press they need and others are side-tracked. When it does not, decisions are redirected to individual ministers to avoid spreading the muck around. Prof Josef Bonnici may not have been the most up-and-coming of Cabinet ministers. The electorate saw this during the last election. But he is certainly not wholly to blame for the ailments in his former 'department.' The decision on the salary of Mr Louis Grech was certainly known to everyone including the Prime Minister, so why all the fuss now? And what about the other chairmen at Air Malta before Mr Grech? Were they too on the recently reported miserly remuneration of Lm7,000 that is apparently paid to current Air Malta chairman Lawrence Zammit? Dr Gatt has much to offer in government, especially when it comes to changes and reform. But he must tread carefully. In reforming PBS, he must appreciate that the commercial aspect must not reign supreme. Dr Gatt – you should reform PBS but don't destroy the role of public broadcasting. When it comes to the parastatal companies, he has all the support he can dream of, from this newspaper and the public in general. But he should go about his major surgery with the full knowledge that in this particular case all the fingers of blame are pointing in one direction and the address reads: 16 years of Nationalist government. Download the MaltaToday App now