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A funding fiasco that raises big questions Last week I praised Minister Dolores Cristina for comments she made in relation to her role as Minister for the family. This week, however, I cannot but give her a big thumbs down for the EU funding fiasco that has wreaked havoc on hundreds of students’ plans to study abroad over the coming months.The European Commission first notified the ministry that it was not satisfied with the way the Youth in Action and Lifelong Learning programmes were being managed last August – a full nine months ago. A formal warning was sent in March and then finally, just a few days ago, the funding was suspended. €4 million that were going to be invested in our students in 2010 has now gone up in flames and if the situation is not rectified soon, we could end up losing our 2011 budget too. Under the circumstances the most astonishing statement was the one issued by a spokesman of the ministry of education: “Our team worked overnight to rectify these administrative problems. We are already compliant, and we sent back a report for verification. Now the Commission has to send an auditor to ensure everything is fine and the programmes can be reopened.” Worked overnight? They had a full nine months to sort out the problems and yet they left it till the last minute and had to pull an all-nighter to sort it out after the shit hit the fan? It would make sense to claim that they worked overnight had they been given just 24 hours’ notice – but in this case they had known about the problem for nine months, and had even received a reminder two months ago. How could such a thing happen? Even if ministry officials were irresponsible enough to ignore the warning sent last August, how could they have ignored the suspension notice sent last March? What have they been doing over the last nine months? Were they twiddling their thumbs and hoping the problem would go away? Did they think the Commission was bluffing? Students who have been working on their placements and organising exchanges using excellent initiatives such as Erasmus (European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students) were not given any indication that problems were brewing. Many of them have been working on their exchange for months – contacting foreign universities, making arrangements for courses and liaising with local lecturers to check the syllabus, looking for accommodation, etc. These arrangements take months to finalise – they cannot be sorted out overnight. However it is in fact overnight that all their plans have been disrupted, since an email was hastily sent this week by the international & EU Office of the University of Malta informing them that they should immediately stop making travel arrangements. In total there are 200 projects that have been derailed by the incompetence of the people who were in charge of administering these programmes. The European Commission has stated that there is no evidence of fraud – a statement that I am sure will be repeated ad nauseam in a few months’ time when the results of an inquiry launched by the Prime Minister are announced. The ministry spokesman has already started the refrain – this is not a case of embezzlement, we were told – it was just “some carelessness”. Carelessness? Fraud or no fraud, this is an unacceptable situation that should have been prevented at all costs. It is no consolation that the cause of the problem was incompetence or “carelessness”, as opposed to fraud. Whatever the reason, the end result is the same. The country has lost millions of euros and more importantly, several students and youth organisations will now miss out on priceless opportunities to expand their horizons. The strange thing so far is that nobody is taking responsibility for the fiasco. The ministry announced that disciplinary action would be taken under public sector regulations “when and if” it resulted that there was a case for such action to be taken. However where does Minister Cristina feature in all of this? Was the Minister informed about the problem? Did anyone tell her about the correspondence received from the Commission last August? Was the matter escalated to her last March when the suspension notice was issued? Is it possible that Minister Cristina did not know? Somehow I doubt it. How is it possible that the minister was not informed that the European Commission had expressed serious misgivings about the persistent lack of feedback received from her ministry and the critical management flaws in her department? If the minister was informed, then she bears the political responsibility for this fiasco, which is serious enough to warrant her resignation. One thing that emerges clearly from this is that super ministries are a bad idea. Dolores Cristina is minister of education, employment and family. Apart from being a mouthful, the portfolio is without a doubt way too vast for one human to deal with. No wonder things are falling through the cracks. The way things are panning out, the cracks have now become gorges, wide enough for a whole €4 million to fall through! Any comments? |
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Managing editor Saviour Balzan | Tel. ++356 21382741 | Fax: ++356 21385075 | Email
Managing editor Saviour Balzan | Tel. ++356 21382741 | Fax: ++356 21385075 | Email