As this year draws to a close, I am going to highlight some of the most recent sheer waste, not the waste we generate, but the way we waste our money, our thinking time and resources to achieve such insignificant results.

This little country, which is going on all cylinders in more ways than one, still manages to move ahead so slowly thanks to the huge obstacles put in the way of the smallest progress made.

As a waste of money I think the incredible sum we were urged to spend, (subtly and not so subtly!) on the Tamiflu anti viral must take the ticket. If it’s true that around 30,000 packets were ordered privately at a cost of around Lm20, could we really have spent Lm600,000 on something that has no real effect either on human bird flu, and probably not on the worrying flu that might mutate when someone with bird flu also has the ordinary flu? A report from Vietnam, where doctors had to treat dozens of victims of bird flu, claims that this drug, Tamiflu, which is being stockpiled around the world (and in Malta particularly by concerned individuals and families), is to use a doctor’s words, “useless against the virus”. The doctors in Vietnam apparently followed the WHO’s guidelines, gave patients with bird flu this Tamiflu, and concluded it had no effect. “We place no importance on using this drug on our patients.”

Tamiflu is really meant only for treating ordinary type A flu. It was not designed to combat H591. Yet in the UK as here, the government has ordered enough to protect a quarter of the population. However the Vietnamese are saying the only help they can give to patients was to “support” all the vital organs, with machines like ventilators and dialysis machines. In the meantime Roche has sold huge stocks to 40 countries, although as explained Tamiflu is only effective if used within the first 48 hours. However, the WHO has admitted that Tamiflu has not been “widely successful in human patients.” So lucky Roche and all their suppliers all over the world to be making so much money out of something with so little effect. At least so far.

The second phenomenal waste of money and effort must go to the deal we gave one car importer for the CHOGM. Just look at what happened. The government was persuaded to borrow 60 prestigious, expensive cars for a week and also to forfeit one million or thereabouts in tax under the pretext that these same cars could be used during CHOGM, and then sold to charity. All sounds good but here is the catch. The importer still received the cost price of these cars while flooding the market with cars that would normally have taken a lot of time to offload. Admittedly the charity got to keep Lm600,000 but the government could have perhaps given Strina Lm600,000 anyway, and hired the cars for say Lm100 per day, which would have cost another Lm42,000. This whole exercise would have cost the government around Lm300,000 less the cool one million they lost in tax.

This way, only one car importer is very happy and the rest are fuming. Strina is happy but it could have been kept happy anyway. And the market for these cars has been flooded for a couple of years so anyone else who imports these kinds of cars is stumped. Having said this the whole CHOGM was extremely well run, except for the parts (in more ways than one!) in the show where bum cheeks and boobs were displayed in the Daily Mail, and gave Malta the wrong kind of publicity (if there is a wrong kind) and put another twist on the so called “wardrobe malfunction” of Janet Jackson.

But I suppose the first prize for waste of money, time and effort must go to the now over documented Sea Malta saga. The government lost the income it could have got from the sale. Workers lost their jobs. Tony Zarb lost face after winning the elections so convincingly against Manwel Micallef. The media circus that has been going on for weeks, the battle between first Austin and Marlene and then Austin and Tony, has ended up with a loss of face for Tony Zarb, but the much more serious loss of workers’ jobs and for this country's coffers. One does wonder if different personalities, particularly in the person of Tony Zarb and perhaps even Austin Gatt, could have led to a different scenario. I seem to remember a much bigger change being handled far better by Lawrence Gonzi at the Drydocks and Malta Shipbuilding in his former role, and although it was not privatisation issue, the political flak could have been enormous and wasn't.

I guess the lesson for our outdated, Neanderthal unions, for government and for us all really is, “It’s not just what you do, it’s the away you do it.” is a refrain that some of those managing things, whether they have MBAs or the most limited of education and outlook would do well to heed before wasting so much effort again for a zero result, except of course the revival in fortune of Lawrence Gonzi's government, whose mid-term blues just got a definite shade paler...