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MW 29 March 2017

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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 29 MARCH 2017 5 News *** The following is the advert's content: Invitation to Tender: Restoration of }'ATTARD Parish Church – Phase 1 }'Attard Parish notifies interested parties that tenders for The restoration of the building envelope of }'Attard Parish Church – Phase 1 will be received at }'Attard Parish Office, 42, Triq il-Kbira, }'Attard, ATD 1026, by not later than the 6 th April, 2017, at 11.00am. The tender document may be obtained by sending an email to: restawrknisjaattard@gmail.com Interconnector 'trip' leads to widespread power cut JEANELLE MIFSUD SEVERAL localities across Malta and Gozo experienced a power cut shortly after 10am yesterday, with Enemalta blam- ing it on technical difficulties during scheduled maintenance of the interconnector's termi- nal station in Ragusa, Sicily. In a statement, Enemalta said capacity was lost after inter- connector transformers were tripped "due to a technical difficulty" during scheduled maintenance works in Sicily. These difficulties led to a sudden reduction in capacity to the national grid, with au- tomatic shedding procedures kicking in and leaving many localities without power. A spokesperson for Enemalta confirmed that a number of localities had been hit by the blackout, although not nation- wide. Electricity started being re- stored almost immediately, and by 10.30am several locali- ties reported that the power was back on. By 11:10am, Enemalta con- firmed that electricity had been restored to all its custom- ers. It described the cause of the power cut as "a technical difficulty," adding that it had resolved the issue within 50 minutes. Affected localities included Sliema, San Gwann, Naxxar, Paola, Santa Venera, Marsas- cala in Malta and Marsalforn and Xlendi in Gozo. George Abela to lead new efforts to strike deal with Air Malta unions JEANELLE MIFSUD FORMER president George Ab- ela will once again lead a com- mittee which will seek to strike an agreement with Air Malta un- ions on early retirement schemes as the airline battles to survive. Tourism minister Edward Zammit Lewis will soon nomi- nate the new committee which will be entrusted with reach- ing an agreement on retirement schemes and negotiating new collective agreements with all Air Malta unions. The committee - which will be given a June deadline - will be made up of Abela, representa- tives from the tourism and fi- nance ministries, as well as a representative from Air Malta's management. In August 2016, president emeritus George Abela was in- strumental in stopping the pi- lots' union from taking indus- trial action following protracted negotiations over the botched Alitalia deal. In a statement, Zammit Lewis said that the move will ensure that workers' rights continue to be safeguarded, while also cre- ating more f lexibility, efficiency and productivity for the airline. Earlier this month, Zammit Lewis said he was willing to take "hard decisions" as the future of the national airline remains in balance. After the deal with Alitalia fell through, government has all but acknowledged that job will be cut at the airline. In January, the Times report- ed that Air Malta was planning cost-cutting measures to the tune of €6 million, which might include job cuts and a wage freeze, after talks with Alitalia for the purchase of a 49% stake in Air Malta had fallen through. NAO findings tend to be ignored, Auditor General says Malta's guardian of the public purse says the NAO's recommendations are now becoming repetitive one year after the other MATTHEW VELLA MALTA'S Auditor General, Charles Deguara, has complained that his office's continuous work and recommendations to promote better governance inside the public sector, are not taken on board and that their findings are now becom- ing repetitive year after year. These findings include familiar complaints about the government's inner workings and: procurement issues, insufficient internal con- trols, deficiencies in contract pro- visions for public services, short- comings in contract management, absence of value for money and lack of transparency and accountability. Deguara said the National Audit Office now intends to strengthen its follow-up process to ensure the timely and efficient implementa- tion of its recommendations. "Nonetheless, we welcomed as an important step forward, the Ad- ministration's report on the status of implementation of our recom- mendations made in the Annual Audit Report on Public Accounts for 2014. This analysis could pro- vide the necessary stimulus for the authorities concerned in undertak- ing the necessary action to address administrative shortcomings iden- tified by this Office," Deguara said of the Labour government's follow- up on the NAO report of that year. The Auditor General also said the NAO would enhance the struc- ture and format of its reports to render them more readable and user-friendly. "It is our intention to simplify our reporting of the re- sults and recommendations arising from our work. In this way, audit reports would be more accessible to the public, who would be able to further appreciate the extent and relevance of our work." 2016 has been a challenging year for the National Audit Office, which published a total of 16 re- ports, equal to the record achieved in 2014. These consisted of one annual audit report on public ac- counts for 2015, an audit report on the workings of local govern- ment for 2015, seven performance audit reports, five special audits and investigations, one IT Audit Report, and one Annual Report on the Work and Activities of NAO for 2015. The reports covered a variety of critical areas such as health, edu- cation and social issues, and have received extensive media coverage.

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