The new Arms CEO Wilfred J Borg has pledged to improve the disastrous management of the company which processes water and electricity bills.

Mr Borg was appointed last Tuesday and in a short interview told this newspaper that while he pledged his commitment to improve the situation, “things will not change overnight”.

Let us be honest, it will not be difficult to improve the state of affairs at Arms, given that the service was so utterly hopeless. While Mr Borg said that waiting time has already been slashed to 55 minutes from 90 and that customer care agents increased by four to 15, there is still so, so much to be done.

Let us tackle one thing at a time. What is Arms going to do (and admit to and list in its statistics) about the hundreds, if not thousands, of phone calls to its offices which go unanswered? People have reportedly hung on the line, listening to droning music for 20-30 minutes before the line goes dead.

What about the hundreds and thousands of emails and enquiries that go unanswered? Will Arms begin to at least send out an acknowledgement email and put these queries in a queue?

What about the shambolic and archaic third world reception and waiting area? Will something be done about it? It literally looks like some hall straight out of the Crimean War. It is cold (or hot if it’s in summer), uncomfortable, bland and seemingly designed to breed frustration and anger. At least there is a coffee machine and a couple of water dispensers.

The fellow who is charged with keeping order (literally), does his best to placate angry and frustrated customers – but one man, armed with only a booming voice and a red LED ticker, cannot hope to possibly explain the queuing process. It’s just a nightmare.

But aside from these ‘superficial’ problems, Arms really needs to get its act together in the actual distribution of bills and their workings. People have complained that they have tried to ask for a bill to be sent, only to never hear anything month after month before a whopping €600 bill for seven months is pushed through their letter box.

Other people have seen meter readers take actual readings, only to be then mailed a bill a few days later in (grossly over)estimate(d) form. Others have paid their bills, been given a receipt, and later receive another bill saying that they have not paid up. The rot is spread right through. It is not at all a company. It is merely a transfer of staff from the old Water Services Corporation offices in Valletta to Luqa. The people are the same, the surroundings are worse, the mistakes are worse, the location is out of the way, bills are either not mailed or are incorrect, estimates arrive concurrently with a valid bill.

It is an absolute diabolical shambles. Oh yes, the Prime Minister apologised (and so he should), but a hollow apology is worse than no apology at all. People do not want to hear the word “sorry”. What they want (and deserve) is a good up to date system that can mail correct bills on time, regularly and which allows people to query and enquire without inducing high blood pressure and a heart attack. Get it sorted.