The modus operandi of the government-appointed board of directors at PBS is a direct reflection of how the government is operating in other sectors of the public service, said Labour spokeswoman Helena Dalli yesterday.

Ms Dalli recounted how months ago, the PBS editorial board had decided which programmes will be included in next season’s schedule. For its part, the board of directors annulled the other board’s decision, and after dragging its feet for months, issued a new schedule without disclosing the content to the editorial board.

It is up to the editorial board to decide which programmes should be broadcast, said Ms Dalli. The lack of leadership and teamwork at PBS, with two boards working against each other, leads only to a lack of efficiency because work is not being done in the best interest of viewers and lack of accountability because programmes that were originally included have now been pulled off without informing their producers.

Ms Dalli added that the delayed decisions are also a sign of inefficiency. This, she said, penalises new producers who have less time to attract advertising and favours those who have been producing inferior quality programmes but because they have been at PBS for many years, think they can never be dropped.

In a statement, the Investment, Industry and IT Ministry said that the MLP statement was so full of contradictions that it seems that it did not know what position it wanted to take.

Its “confused and inconsistent criticism” permits one conclusion: the return of monolithic structures for the government to be in full control.

The government believes that the separate evaluation process and the distinct commercial decisions enabled PBS to make a profit for the first time in a number of years, while improving the quality of the programmes it broadcasts.