Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/364850
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 17 AUGUST 2014 24 Letters 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. The National Action Plan for Em- ployment launched by Government, as a draft guideline for consultation with all the stakeholders in the labour market is, barring certain omissions, a well-thought out and forward looking initiative. It deserves and indeed has already re- ceived the approval of all the main stakeholders in the market place. It embodies a consultation process: prepare a plan or rather guidelines, discuss with all interested parties, put it up for public discussion, amend where necessary, establish consensus and implement. Its success will ultimately depend not only on the willingness of all the stakeholders to compromise and on Government to enforce all the measures agreed to, but mainly on how competitive our country is in the global market place. In essence this plan can serve as the basis for the social pact, the brain- child of the UHM. The leitmotif running throughout the plan is that growth depends on the productive jobs created in market place. The creation of these productive jobs, with an emphasis on the word productive, together with foreign direct investment, in- creased revenues from tourism and ruthlessly controlling Government expenditure is the essential recipe towards reviving our economy. If all of this is achieved Malta will take a few giant steps in the right direc- tion. But, what is being suggested, is not enough. The plan is not a job creation strategy, but merely aims to create an environment which will allow jobs to be created - it talks about how to create more and better jobs. The link between education and job creation is self-evident. An essential part of creating an environment for jobs is the creating of a competi- tive climate whereby investors are attracted to invest in Malta as they did in the late sixties and early sev- enties. There can be no job creation outside a competitive environment. Investment is a very shy bird! To its merit the plan does recognise: the need to reduce bureaucracy; that Government induced costs are adversely affecting business; and that the better enforcement of tax and employment regulations are a necessity to ensure fair competi- tion between regular and irregular businesses. It highlights the need for more fiscal support for small businesses and the need to develop a sound venture capital market since bank financing still depends on high collateral. The plan is spot-on when stating that entrepre- neurs create jobs and recognising the consequent need to make the regulatory framework more busi- ness friendly. The plan is target setting. It in- cludes a number of targets, a three percent increase in jobs over a three year period, an increase in female employment by seven percent and a formal provision for child care. Tied to the realisation of these targets there are beneficial fiscal and taxation measures, all planned to introduce more people and especially the female population into the market place. Strangely, the figures in the action plan and those in the contingency plan presented to the EU are different, with the lo- cal targets being far less ambitious. Foremost amongst omissions in the plan is the failure to highlight sufficiently the problem that the public sector is over-manned. This problem although men- tioned en passant is not really tackled in this action plan. Any analysis of the country's finances would highlight the high yearly burden of the mainly unproductive public sector. Immediate action needs to be taken to lessen this burden. There must be no more public sector employment except where the recruitment of specialised persons is really required. Persons retiring should not be replaced. Persons retiring should not be re-employed as consultants. Job creation must be directed towards the private sector. The creation of unproductive jobs in the public sector will not bring about growth, let alone sustainable growth. Malta's public sector is costing the tax-payer a substantial yearly amount. Is the citizen getting value for its money? Government after Government has continued to fatten the public sector. It is now time to bite the bullet here too. Too many citizens lament the fact that their hard earned tax money is being used to keep unpro- ductive civil servants in their jobs. The plan should include a study on just how large a staff Government needs to function. It should exam- ine the need for overtime payments in the half-day summer months. It should also consider whether half days should be retained during the summer, what levels of absenteeism exist, whether sick leave is abused, and - perhaps more importantly - whether civil servants give a full day's work. Are all these matters being moni- tored? The plan simply does not go into these matters and focuses on the infringements in the private sector which affect government finances adversely and the action it intends taking to counter abuse. Accordingly, Government is right to enforce control on persons work- ing with the private sector who do not register their employment. There is little mention however of persons who work for Government and do not manage more than an hour's work! Productivity levels in the public sector get little attention, barring a few fleeting references to greater centralisation of authority from the Public Service Commis- sion to department heads; the results based accountability in the civil service and public entities as enshrined in the White paper on the Public service issued last year. The plan should include what Government intends doing about public sector employment and productivity. There should be stricter monitoring and appraisal of productivity levels of all in the pub- lic sector and not just of the heads of departments and the Permanent Secretaries. The plan is an excellent begin- ning. It may not be a magic wand as the Prime Minister stated, but if implemented together with the need to focus on the over-manning levels in the public sector it could go a long way towards creating an environment for the creation of new productive jobs. Tackle the public sector Editorial • 22 August 2004 Preventing extinction of the Sea Daffodil I was fortunate enough this sum- mer to discover "White Tower Bay" in Armier. The beach is not that overpopulated on a Sunday, even though there are many boat- houses surrounding the coast. Up to a certain extent, I would still consider it as virgin compared to all the other beaches on the island. On my third visit and by chance, I discovered that there is a special sand dune which is supposed to be protected because of its ecological importance. However, I was told that some vandals broke the pro- tective chains and link fence. The reason for the sand dune being protected is simple. First of all, this sand dune is one of five re- maining sand dunes in Malta. The second is that in this particular case, the Sea Daffodil (pankrazju in Maltese) grows there in sum- mer. Thirdly, this f lower is about to become extinct and we cannot afford to lose more local and rare species. At present, the dune in Ghajn Tuffieha is being given its ecologi- cal importance again and hope- fully rehabilitated to its original habitat. May I strongly suggest that White Tower Bay is rehabili- tated again to its original habitat. Hopefully, car drivers would not be able to continue parking their cars over the dune and to make it completely inaccessible to the public. Signs, at eye level, depict- ing the importance of the area, would help as well. This way the f lora there would be able to thrive again. One more thing needs to be mentioned regarding this bay. The seagrass should be cleaned from day one of the summer season and regularly thereafter. I have noticed that nearly two months had to pass before it was cleaned for the first time. Unfortunately, this was not followed through. Not only is seagrass an eyesore and hindrance to bathers but it is harmful to the bulbous plant (Pancratium mariti- mum) as well. Sand dunes occupy 25 hectares of land and I am sorry to say we still cannot protect this small area on our tiny island. Thus may I challenge the Mellieha local coun- cil, the Ministry of Agriculture, MEPA, NGOs and all the other responsible stakeholders to look much closer at this threatened habitat and its endangered species. Leonard Schembri, Gzira. A puzzle of a mayor I've been coming to Gozo every year for a long time now and in my opinion it's like heaven on earth. I lost the rose coloured glasses a long time ago and realise that like everywhere else on earth it has its faults and its problems but when you love a place the way I do you try to accept those things. I've been watching the process of the resur- facing of the square in front of the church in Qala and have to say that the guys did a really good job there, but as usual it has not been without its problems. The first problem arose when the Qala mayor decided that the trees should be removed. I've noticed over the years that Malta seems to have a thing about destroying trees, even though they are not exactly plentiful on the islands, and come up with all sorts of excuses to do so. I think on this occasion it was be- cause birds roosted in the trees and did their business on the benches below. A problem, by the way, that is easily solved by providing the benches with covers as has been done elsewhere. Another excuse is that the roots damage pavements and water pipes. Back home here we have oak trees and chestnut trees growing beside pavements and they damage nothing. Anyway the trees survived this time, apart from the two palms, which I guess was a way for the mayor to save face. Now I've heard that he wants to close the square off and stop cars from using it in case they dirty the new surface. What is this guy's problem? That's like spending good money on an expensive umbrella and then not taking it out in case it gets wet! Now as far as I know that square belongs to the church, so does the mayor have a problem with the church which would explain why he keeps going against their wishes, or does he just want to stir things up for the people of Qala? If it's the latter what exactly is his agenda? What does he get out of causing all this trouble for a vil- lage he is supposed to represent? If the mayor decides to answer this perhaps he can also explain where the benches from the square have disappeared to? From what I have heard there was not a single bench available during the Festa. Was the council ordered to remove these and if so why? If that is not the case were they stolen and if so has a report been made to the police? If I remember correctly the mayor was saying before this work was carried out that once it was fin- ished cars would be allowed back onto the square as before, so why has he now changed his mind? I guess the main question he needs to answer is why as mayor, someone who should be uniting the community, is he continuously trying to cause trouble within that community? I just can't figure him out and I'm sure others are asking the same questions. James A. Tyrrell Larne, N. Ireland