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22 Letters maltatoday, SUNDAY, 5 JANUARY 2014 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. Malta Enterprise opening hours With reference to the information given in the article titled 'Amid European austerity, Malta keeps public workforce half-days', (George M. Mangion) published on the MaltaToday portal last Thursday, Malta Enterprise would like to clarify the following. Contrary to the impression given in your article, Malta Enterprise does not practice any longer the one week of shut-down during the month of August, or any other month of the year for that matter. This follows a decision taken in the later months of the year 2012 to cancel this practice. Moreover, it is only during the month of August that Malta Enterprise personnel work on half-days. It is important to note that as of August 2013, an immediate response team led by senior officials has been available and accessible to the public on each and every weekday in August except 15 August. During the rest of the year Mal- ta Enterprise is open for business during normal business hours. Meetings outside normal working hours including weekends are possible (and not infrequent) by appointment. Regarding Business First opening hours, it should be noted that, apart from the month of August, the unit remains open until 7.00pm every Wednesday. Cain Grech Chairman's Office Malta Enterprise The Nationalist Party is dead as a doornail Environmentalists strike back Raphael Vassallo (reference is made to his article published on the 11 December edition of MaltaToday) is beginning to sound like an ageing enfant terrible, with a memory that is starting to play tricks but with a capacity for sour comment undiminished, if sometimes undermined by wrong information and split infinitives. The PN people he refers to, as could be clearly seen in the photograph with the article, are in fact "propping up" Martin Galea de Giovanni, a member of Friends of the Earth. And no, the two facts that were assumed by Vassallo to have slipped our attention had not in fact done so. What has slipped is Vassallo's attention, not noticing the volume of written protest put up by NGOs, four of which are still in court over the 2006 Rationalisation Scheme, incidentally. The mention of David Pace is indeed "bizarre". He is the current Environment Commissioner (ex-MEPA Auditor) working in the office of the Ombudsman and the author of the Report on Mistra, drawn up at the request of Din l-Art Helwa (DLH). He was never on a MEPA main board. Vassallo may be thinking of Philip Manduca. Dr Manduca, a member of DLH, was not on the MEPA Board in 2009 but at least a year later as a NGO representative. Anne Fenech's jibe at DLH: that their representative was on the MEPA Board when the Outline Permit was issued was wrong on both timing and substance. The current NGO representative is Alex Vella of Ramblers; he voted against. Vassallo is also slipping on logic. While devoting quite a lot of column-inches to Bahrija and Rationalisation, he concludes that "Bahrija and Rationalisation were largely incidental to the bigger picture": Bahrija perhaps, but Rationalisation most certainly not; it has in fact served as a springboard for PS Farrugia's avalanche of new, holistic (as in "full of holes") ODZ "policies". Worse still, Vassallo then decides that the public demonstrations were "mere excuses" to let off steam, marking occasions when there was a change of (government) boot from one foot to the other. Although he admits to attending the 2005 ODZ demonstration, he conveniently forgets that NGOs do not wear 'shoes'. So no matter which foot the government jackboot is on, it is we or most of us, who get our toes squashed. E.A. Mallia Attard Meddlesome bachelors Imagine how laughable it would be if elderly or middle-aged celibate bachelors had to pontificate on marriage, divorce, same-sex marriage, and the adoption of children. In Malta, we do have such meddlesome, celibate bachelors. They're the men in cassocks. The PN leader's insistence that the party has suddenly become sensitive to people's suffering is false, and this will be consolidated when the PN will return only one MEP at May elections. The PN is not taking into account that in March households will receive drastically reduced electricity bills that will enable people to get out from poverty risk zone; the voters will remember the sacrifices they did to pay Arms Ltd bills when others were messing about with Enemalta and oil procurement. I think that paid up members of the PN should clean out the old firm and vote only people that did not participate in the disgraceful period of the party. They should also send home all men and put women in leadership. Alfred Galea San Gwann They have about as much experience of marriage, divorce, same-sex marriage, and the adoption of children as Casanova or Don Juan had experience of chastity or monogamy! John Guillaumier St Julian's YOUR FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY www.maltatoday.com.mt The fraud that is EDITORIAL • 4 January 2004 Far from our shores it may seem, but not so far after all. The Parmalat scandal appeared to be Italian but now it has come to haunt us, MaltaToday takes a closer look at this scandal. It makes for good reading. It tells us a tale of greed, deceit and fraud and paints a dark cloud over the once upon a time dignified operators, the auditors. Or so we thought. For Parmalat to have siphoned off millions of millions in euros and dollars, the likes of founder and owner Caristo Tanzi required the help of experts. Technical advisors who would ensure that Parmalat selectively move funds from one tax regime to another. This is not the work of amateurs but of professionals, normally called upon to uphold fiscal and diligence in a company. They come by the name of auditors. The Parmalat story carries on where the US's Enron one left off, even if the Italian family run business may have started its shady deals way before Enron's fiddling. What is happening in the case of Parmalat has direct reverberations on Malta. But it has been happening on a smaller scale with many other private and smaller companies in Malta. Without generalising or specifying, for there is no concrete proof of collusion between auditors and fraud in Maltese companies, one can say that there is ample reason to believe that many companies are being advised to cook their books. Companies engage auditors to verify their accounts and check their systems of internal control. Auditors also provide advice on taxation, and are often called upon for other professional consultancy services. Most of the relationships be- tween auditors and their clients are probably above board, but when a company wants to fall foul of taxation law, it may be tempted to ask its auditors to comply, or be removed. Unethical though that is, we have no doubt that it happens, and auditors are not eager to let go of the audit fees that provide their income. The worst-case scenario is when companies close shop and dismiss hundreds of workers. This has hardly happened in Malta, although the Price Club collapse quickly springs to mind, but there must have been many other close shaves with this unfortunate reality. This calls for vigilance on the part of the financial authorities in Malta. Perhaps the time has come to stress the need for some real time due diligence on the part of auditors.