The public perception of two of the government’s companies, Air Malta and ARMS Limited, has been at its lowest ebb for months on end due to completely different circumstances. Separate and distinct efforts are in hand to improve the operations of these two companies, and yet particular situations just present themselves to reinforce that negative perception even further.

Two news items concerning these two companies were published in the last few days, and this news raised concern, once again, over the managing function and government’s political responsibility in managing companies funded by taxpayers’ money.

In Air Malta’s case, the Airline Pilots Association expressed its concern over the restructuring plan being drafted by Ernst and Young, which, in the association’s opinion, will not save the company, but, to the contrary, “destroy” the national airline.

This statement is of particular concern for the country, and the tourism industry, when considering that Air Malta performs the function of a national airline, a role that carries significant weight. Moreover, such a statement made from an association representing pilots, who perform a core function, is worrying, since these people are bound to know their business and their suggestions could perhaps be invaluable.

According to a statement issued by the association, its plan for restructuring Air Malta was “discarded”, and, even worse, the restructuring team collected “distorted” details which could render the restructuring plan “indistinct”. The worrying situation at Air Malta, where around 600 employees are rumoured to be on the line to lose their job, should have prompted the government to take on board all the valid suggestions possible to save the airline and turn around the company’s finances.

There could possibly be two reasons which prompted the Airline Pilots Association to issue that statement. Either, as explained in the statement, the government and the restructuring team could possibly be making the grave mistake of basing their restructuring plan on distorted data and thus rendering the plan obsolete from the start. Or the Airline Pilots Association has been regarded by the government and the restructuring team as ineffective, since, as the association said in its statement, the own restructuring plan it presented was disregarded and its services completely ignored.

With regard to ARMS Limited, the Finance Minister admitted that the managers, who were responsible for last year’s incredible public disgruntlement due to various shortcomings in the issuing of bills, will receive financial compensation in the form of performance bonuses for their work during 2010. To put it in other words, and in simple terms, the government decided on everyone’s behalf that these managers ought to be compensated for their mismanagement in running ARMS Limited for the period during which the public’s negative perception was at its height.

Perhaps the government would have done better to improve the public perception with regard to ARMS Limited by re-considering its decision to award performance bonuses and, more importantly, explain its short-sightedness in the setting up of ARMS Limited and transferring billing operations and customer care to this company before the necessary structure was in place to perform seamlessly and up to its mission.