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Karl Schembri
PBS Chairman Michael Mallia is defiantly holding on to his position at the helm of the national broadcasting station, a week since Investments Minister Austin Gatt revealed the extent of the fallout in a statement to MaltaToday.
Attempts to contact Mallia until late last night proved futile but government sources say the minister is expecting him to submit the resignation letter.
According to a statement sent last week to MaltaToday by Gatt’s spokesman, the ministry “is aware that the Chairman of PBS has taken certain decisions that are not in line with ministry policies.”
Although it stopped short of identifying these decisions, the ministry’s statement came in the wake of a series of questions sent by
MaltaToday to the PBS Chairman and to the ministry about measures taken during the ongoing restructuring process.
The ministry also announced Gatt would be “reporting to Cabinet and suggesting further action that would be taken.”
Mallia can potentially embarrass the government if he persists in his defiance following Gatt’s public declarations. On the other hand, Gatt is the same minister who unceremoniously removed Mallia’s predecessor, Austin Sammut, in July last year, after he had only served six months in office.
According to The Times, the Cabinet gave Gatt the go-ahead to inform Mallia that the government wanted him to consider his position last Monday – clearly the diplomatic alternative to giving him the sack.
Sources from PBS say the chairman was at the station last week pretending it was ‘business as usual’ although privately he was upset by the ministry’s statement and the ensuing press reports.
At the investments ministry, the name of other possible chairmen are already being floated around although it seems there has been no definitive choice so far.
Publicly, the minister is only sticking to his original statement, giving every indication that the ball is now in Mallia’s court. Contacted yesterday, a spokesman for the minister also declined to comment.
Last Sunday MaltaToday reported the contradictions in the restructuring process which is seeing certain PBS employees getting hefty golden handshakes, only to end up being re-engaged by the station to keep doing the same jobs privately.
A former full-time mechanic who received Lm17,000 for early retirement is now working privately on the same PBS vehicles he used to service, while an engineer who was in charge of the maintenance of the Gharghur antenna is similarly doing private work for PBS after he received a golden handshake.
MaltaToday has learned that Mgr Victor Grech’s popular radio Saturday morning programme, Kelma ta’ Kuragg, was unexpectedly axed from the new PBS schedule on the grounds that he did not apply - to continue with his programme - in writing. It appears on the other hand that other radio presenters were actually asked by the station to continue their programmes even though they never filed official applications.
But PBS Chief Executive Andrew Psaila in a reply to
MaltaToday stated:
“In its choice of radio programmes PBS followed the provisions mentioned in its Programme Statement of Intent and in the Programmes Policy both published last May,
“These documents clearly state how proposals submitted are evaluated and what happens when no proposals are made or when those made do not reach the required standard. The strategy adopted this year while formulating the schedule of Radju Malta followed the criteria adopted with great success since October 2000.”
Psaila added: “We are confident that the present schedule will help Radju Malta fulfill its remit and consolidate its audience within the local media scenario.”
Workers at PBS say the restructuring exercise which has reduced the 180-strong workforce to just around 60 and was aimed at cutting costs drastically is being turned on its head as the remaining staff is working overtime for unprecedented amounts of hours - particularly producers and cameramen.
“Of course, everyone likes working overtime,” one worker said. “The irony is that while they used to accuse us of inefficient work practices, now everyone is getting more overtime than ever, and they will still have to employ more part-timers because there are simply not enough workers left.”
Some other workers who were not selected by the restructuring team to be employed in the downsized PBS are receiving full pay while waiting at home for news about their redeployment with the government.
A managing director at Multigas and former director of Standard Publications Ltd – publishers of The Malta Independent and The Malta Business Weekly – Mallia was immediately entrusted by Gatt with the PBS restructuring process, following several shelved reports commissioned under previous ministers responsible for the national television and radio stations.
The restructuring exercise however was soon lambasted from several quarters upon its implementation earlier this year, with the minister seemingly ignoring the flak and public outrage at some of the decisions taken in his full knowledge, some even under his orders. These included the closure of Radju Bronja, the farming out of virtually all of PBS’s current affairs programmes, and the exodus of veteran broadcasters, cameramen and journalists.
Even before the restructuring process started, Gatt had caused shockwaves last year when he said he would reduce the PBS staff to around 50.
Now that even the chairman is on his way out, Gatt is saying that while “a restructuring exercise on the ground is far different from one on paper, policy parameters are paramount.”
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