Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/540322
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 12 JULY 2015 News 9 MIRIAM DALLI AN overall improvement in the quality, taste and temperature of hospital food has been reported by patients, a survey commissioned by Mater Dei Hospital's food serv- ice provider has found. The survey, carried out by Misco International Ltd among 100 pa- tients from different wards, was re- quested by health junior minister Chris Fearne and commissioned by James Caterers Ltd. With an 825 bed capacity, Mater Dei spends a daily €6,950 in lunch and dinner for patients, total- ling some €2,536,750 by the end of the year. The 15-year contract with Malta HealthCare Caterers Ltd – a James Caterers subsidiary – was signed in 2007 and expires in 2022. The quarterly surveys were re- quested last year following numer- ous complaints about food quality, especially in relation to taste and temperature. Although the surveys are being commissioned by the service provider, Fearne believes that it brings added controls for the provider to keep services at the highest levels. "The fact that Misco is carrying out the surveys gives added impe- tus to the results," he said, refer- ring to the survey company's repu- table work. Parallel to the survey, the health parliamentary secretariat em- ploys "an auditor" to keep track of the daily complaints that come in about the food provided to the patients. Corresponding with the Misco survey, whose results were seen by MaltaToday, most of the com- plaints received directly by the government revolved around the presentation, taste and tempera- ture of food and limited choice of food. Also, patients have com- plained of the taste due to the food being steamed, and lacking salt and spices. The April survey shows a drastic improvement in patients' recep- tion of the food when compared to the January results. When ana- lysing the survey, one must keep in mind the high turnover of pa- tients and the individual's personal tastes. Fieldwork was carried out over seven days by interviewers trained to carry out market re- search interviews. According to the survey, 61% of the respondents said they were completely satisfied with the food, a drastic increase when compared to the 23% registered in January. Likewise, the number of 'fairly satisfied' went down from 46% to 17%. Dinner quality was rated at 59%, up from 18% in January, while an equal 17% 'less satisfied' rating was registered in both months. An improvement in the quality led to an improved rating of food taste where the fairly satisfied rat- ing of around 47.5% for both lunch and dinner switched to 51.5% in the 'completely satisfied' tag. The trend was registered in every category surveyed: be it tempera- ture, presentation and appeal, menu choice, design of menus, assistance to fill in the menus and correct order. The change between January and April was drastic with a majority of respondents – albeit different ones – moving from fairly satisfied to completely satisfied. It is understood that further training of newly-employed work- ers by the company, removing old trays, offering peeled and cut fruit and ensuring that the food was kept heated played a major role in the improvements registered. Malta HealthCare Caterers Ltd is obliged to provide lunch and dinner every day, based on a 14- day menu which must be varied and healthy. The service provider must also provide food catering for people with particular needs, such as diabetic food and low fat and gluten free, food for patients on chemotherapy and soft and liquid- ized food. A separate food menu is provided for children. MATTHEW VELLA THE government is planning to bring in new controls on cash transactions in order to tighten up the fight against tax evasion and money laundering, by limit- ing cash transactions to a maxi- mum of €10,000. The controls will make it un- lawful for people to make or receive payments or carry out transactions in cash exceeding €10,000, where it is in one single payment or in broken-down pay- ments that appear to be linked – a practice known as 'smurfing' that breaks down cash into small- er payments to avoid suspicion of money laundering. The penalty for transactions exceeding the limit will be of anything between 15% to 40% of the amount paid in excess of the €10,000 threshold. The Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit has told the GRTU small enterprises chamber, that the risk of money laundering in certain sectors of business re- mains high. The rules will affect businesses that tend to handle high volumes of cash transac- tions, offering such business owners the potential of making large-scale payments for other goods or services that remain un- traceable. Cash-front businesses such as restaurants, nail bars, petrol sta- tions, salons and other service businesses dealing with high vol- umes of cash can also provide an ideal cover for the source of inex- plicable quantities of cash. Suspicious transaction reports (STRs) increased in number in 2014, which registered a record 202 reports, up by 59 disclo- sures. The 202 STRs gave rise to 168 new cases dealt with by the FIAU. The increase in the number of STRs filed in 2014 originated mainly from credit institutions – 112 compared to 66 disclosures in 2013 – in part reflecting the high awareness and vigilance prevalent in banks and financial institutions. In six cases referred to the po- lice by the FIAU, cash deposits were made by persons known to be connected to drug trafficking into the accounts of individuals whose known profile did not tally with the volume of deposits. The 180 cases dealt with by the FIAU during 2014 concerned a total of 395 persons. In total 27 cases, from a total of 154 concluded cases, were for- warded to the police for investi- gation by the FIAU. 15 of these cases originated from STRs by credit institutions. The suspected offence for the 27 cases forward- ed to the police was mainly fraud (nine cases) – in three cases, the offence was mass-marketing fraud, and two cases of using remote gaming companies to launder the proceeds of pre-paid cards that were acquired fraudu- lently. Money laundering trends In seven of the cases referred to the police, a clear trend emerged in which foreign nationals in- corporate a Maltese company and open accounts with Maltese banks. Substantial amounts of money were then transferred to these accounts that were then, either immediately or after some time, wired to bank accounts in the name of other companies in other jurisdictions. In most cases, the funds were received in one transaction and then remitted out of the bank account in separate transac- tions of different values. In most cases, the purported reason for the transaction was said to be a shareholder's loan. Bank accounts in Malta were also used as conduits to channel money generated from the sus- pected illegal activity. In three other fraud cases, the money was placed with a remote gaming company through the use of credit cards or using pre-paid card information that was in the first place, acquired fraudulently. In all these cases, the clients of the remote gaming companies held bank accounts in their coun- try of residence and requested the remote gaming companies to transfer the funds held in their Malta far from 'cashless society' The Maltese retain a fondness for using cash, with a Central Bank study finding that 88% of payment transactions are in cash, and with credit cards and debit cards only taking up 4% of each. €20 and €50 in cash are used for daily purposes, and only 1.8% of respondents told a CBM survey that they do not carry any cash around with them at all. Around €15 million of transactions every day are made in cash for such things as consumer goods like white goods, cars, electronics and furniture (62%), followed by debit cards (13.6%), credit cards (9.7%), and cheques (5.3%). However, internet banking was mainly used for higher- value transactions. According to the World Payments Report, global debit card transactions grew by 13.4 per cent in 2012, compared to a year earlier, while credit card use rose by 9.9 per cent. Debit and credit cards accounted for 60.9 per cent of all non-cash transactions. The European Central Bank had figures for 2013 for the EU alone, with card payments accounting for 44 per cent of all transactions, and cheque use declining steadily. €6,950 daily food spend for Mater Dei patients €10,000 limit proposed on cash transactions Caterer now carries out quarterly surveys on hospital food quality