U turns, best practice and transparency

Having a hard time to get my teeth into what to write about, despite the “Dog attacks baby” story and Mercaptan, not to mention the Budget, I found a nice morsel in yesterday’s events, which finally gave me something to really chew on. The Nationalist Party (PN) is holding its General Council meeting this weekend with the theme “We are proud of our country because we believe in our country”. Well, no one can dispute that sentiment. But wow, is the PN getting that desperate? It is telling us that it is planning to promote legislation to grant rights to non-married couples, including gay couples. Again, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that line of thought, but it does rather stick in the gullet coming from a party that fought tooth and nail to keep divorce out of the country very recently. The PN has always been a Church ally, especially in the belief of the nuclear family. But, it seems that the party has seen the light and that the time has come for the two institutions to separate. It is stating that while it was proud to be inspired by Catholic values, it was also aware of the clear distinction between Church and State. A very big step for the PN. Their polls and the divorce debacle (for it and the Church) must have set the alarm bells off at Pieta. It can’t be to counterattack the Cyrus Engerer saga? Surely not. The announcement that the PN is to become progressive in its thinking demonstrated a lack of depth and had undertones of panic. It is covering as much lost ground as possible by stressing that civil liberties must be strengthened in areas of individual privacy, freedom of expression and censorship. It wants to win votes by telling us that it is accepting that society is not static and that it has to learn to accept changes to Malta’s ‘traditional’ way of life. That it is ‘listening’. Yet, it does not want to lose a large chunk of its voters – the reactionaries, who have always seen the PN as their champion. So it emphasised that the family remains at the core of society. It wants to reassure them that the PN remains committed to work to further strengthen the family, despite divorce. Which raises the question, which “family” exactly? This volte-face is also telling us that the closet progressives in the PN have been encouraged by Franco Debono and are coming out from within its enclaves. Despite some attempts to undermine Debono in the media, it seems that his party is having to acknowledge his input and influence. It will be seeking constitutional reform for financial autonomy to Parliament and other institutions, including the Ombudsman, the Auditor General, the Public Accounts Committee and the Permanent Commission Against Corruption. Hopefully, financial autonomy will result in complete autonomy. Now that the PN has laid its ‘new’ cards on the table, it will be interesting to see how the Labour Party (PL) will react and try to match it by tackling radical changes in its party. Best practice An eight-month investigation by the Auditor General into the way ministers gave themselves a substantial and secretive pay rise in 2008 has concluded that although no evidence of illegal misappropriation of public funds was found, the implementation of the Cabinet decision was “incorrect and a good example of bad practice”. It seems that an attempt was made to make the pay increases unnoticeable in the Budget votes. Documenting and charting procedures and practices is a complicated and time-consuming process often skipped by companies and institutions and is termed as “bad practice”. When it comes to how government spends public money it is crucial that best practice is adopted. Otherwise, the government puts itself in the position of trying to pull wool over the public’s eye. Transparency Have you noticed that when you click on “About us” on some websites you are not told who “us” are? I have come across this several times recently when trying to find out who Board members are, or whoever is running a company or institution. Yet, we are led to believe that transparency is the order of the day. This is not just about people not wanting to let us know who they are and what they are up to. At the beginning of this column, I mentioned “Mercaptan”. An inquiry board was set up by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech at the end of September to investigate allegations that Enemalta illegally disposed of the chemical by burning it in an open field in 2009. It “was to deliver results at the earliest possible,” although no deadline was established. On Friday, Minister Fenech said the investigation is at an advanced stage but its times frames were not determined. No rush. Enemalta is alleged to have instructed contractors to dispose of 10 barrels containing 450 gallons of the chemical by burning it in a field on the outskirts of Rabat. I had read that the Malta Environment and Planning Authority had confirmed it did not authorise any burning of hazardous chemicals in an open field and launched a separate investigation into the matter. I don’t know whether that inquiry has reached a verdict. This saga raises many questions on transparency and safety when it comes to the disposal of dangerous chemicals. Since we are encouraging more pharmaceutical companies to invest and grow here, we should really be establishing some ground rules and best practice on chemical waste, not to mention monitoring and enforcement. Lastly, and this has nothing to do with my heading, but I was just so incensed that Minister Fenech had the gall to invite the public to participate in the City Gate project funding. The €80m project includes the demolition of city gate, the rebuilding of city gate bridge, the building of a new parliament building and the conversion of the old theatre ruins into an open air theatre. Leaving aside my personal anger at not the demolition of the gate but the ensuing gap. But, hang on a minute, did I read “rebuilding of the bridge”? We need clarification here. Anyway, the public at large has directed harsh criticism at the new parliament building and the open-air theatre. Yet, now it is being invited to help pay for it. Article published in the Malta Independent on Sunday  20 November 2011