Presenting the corporation’s financial estimates in parliament, Dr Gatt said “this doesn’t mean that the management of WSC is without problems, but it would be good if we had more organisations with this kind of management culture”.

The minister announced that next year’s government subsidy to the corporation will be decreased by Lm0.5 million.

“The Labour administration issued some Lm14 million in subsidies during the period 1997-1998. This is now down to Lm8.4 million, a 40 per cent decrease. If these are not good results I would like to know what is,” Dr Gatt said

A quick look at the accounts shows that there is an effective cost cutting exercise.

Operating and financial costs are down by Lm1.7 million from last year. Of these only Lm200,000 is due to depreciation. The rest came from real savings on administration and through the curbing of inefficient work practices.

“We achieved these cuts not through a decrease in the product delivered. We improved the production and distribution of the water as well as its quality.”

If one looks at the key performance indicators one sees that there is more efficiency across the board. A number of expensive work practices were removed with full consultation with the union.

The number of debtors were also slashed. This was a problem that used to burden the company’s cash flow, and incur inproportionate interests from bank loans.

Labour spokesman Joe Mizzi criticised the minister, saying that it was a lauding speech intended to favour the corporation’s chairman Michael Falzon, a candidate for the forthcoming European Parliament elections.

Mr Mizzi quoted a statement by the company’s chief executive saying “40 per cent of water production was being lost. What sort of efficiency is this?” asked Mr Mizzi. “When people report leakage in the roads it takes ages for repairs to be undertaken.”

He added that the financial reports show that expenditure did not grow proportionately with production.

Mr Mizzi recalled last November’s sabotage on a WSC reservoir. He claimed that this was made possible by a lack of security. He also mentioned the high incidence of nitrates in the water in some localities, a fact that was hidden from the public.

“We are accustomed to listening to nice stories by the government. An analysis by a foreign consultant appointed by the corporation showed that the quality of the water was bad. Now the minister is telling us that that we are close to the set standards. It takes years for the water quality to improve,” Mr Mizzi said.