The Economist Intelligence Unit has acknowledged it is concerned its latest country report on Malta appears to have presented a one-sided set of facts and that it “should have been edited to downplay what seems to be a fairly trivial matter”.
The comments follow a recent observation by The Malta Independent on Sunday that a section of the EIU’s September country report on Malta analysing Malta’s political scene smacked of a Malta Labour Party press release and had presented a lopsided point of view.
The contribution in question, which forms part of a series analysing the state of affairs in Malta, mentions that the PN’s campaign has been marred by corruption allegations. It however makes no reference, as a full analysis of a political scene should, to the fact that Labour has made the same subjects the cornerstones of its own unofficial campaign. Nor does it refer to the political mileage it sought to gain from the allegations.
Although the article published in this newspaper had been greeted with a certain degree of sarcasm, as well as eliciting venomous letters to this newspaper, the EIU’s Director for Western Europe Country Analysis Charles Jenkins has taken the matter seriously.
Communicating with a journalist from Net News, which chose to follow up the story, Mr Jenkins acknowledged in e-mails made available to this newspaper that the contribution should have been edited to downplay what he considers to be a trivial matter.
Jenkins, who was on holiday at the time and as such did not see the Malta country report before it went to print, commented, “I agree the paragraph referred to does appear to give a one-sided point of view. This should have been edited to downplay what seems to be a fairly trivial matter, for which I apologise.
“We do take these issues very seriously,” he added, “and (I) am concerned that this section of the report does appear one-sided. Please rest assured that we will continue to make every effort in future to cover Malta in an impartial and independent manner.”
The EIU’s country report is a reference point for a number of international studies ranking countries’ performance in a variety of sectors such as the economy, political stability, gender equality, and corruption.
The organisation Transparency International recently confirmed with this newspaper that it uses the highly respected EUI reports, among other less influential sources, for the formulation of its own Corruption Perceptions Index.
The last Index published by the organisation, which had become the subject of a verbal tussle between the government and the Opposition, showed Malta to have had a “significant worsening” in corruption perceptions.
The EIU’s contribution on Malta’s political scene had opened, “The PN’s unofficial election campaign has been marred by corruption allegations, many of which are being investigated by the police.”
It then goes on to list the Opposition’s favourite subjects over recent months – the Malta Maritime Authority sea craft licences scandal, the issuing of invalidity pensions at the social security department and the forging of signatures on education certificates in Gozo.
The larger part of the contribution, however, deals with the recent scandals at the Malta Transport Authority. Referring to the Prime Minister’s refusal to accept the resignation offered by Roads and Urban Development Minister Jesmond Mugliett, the article notes how Dr Gonzi “passed up a significant opportunity to show the current government’s commitment to fighting corruption and punishing the perpetrators”.
The article goes on to refer to tapes leaked to the Labour-leaning media this summer showing that Competitiveness and Communications Minister, and former Transport Minister, Censu Galea had known of the abuse.
It had noted, “While the MLP called for Mr Galea’s resignation, the Prime Minister failed to take action. These episodes have decreased the credibility of the PN to fight corruption and have increased public perception that corruption is rife at all levels of the public administration in Malta.”
While the identities of the EIU’s contributors are withheld, the Unit uses a network of some 500 international contributor economists in developing its analyses of countries, governments, multi-national corporations and financial institutions. It is, however, a known fact that MLP leader Alfred Sant was himself a former contributor.