The success of the early retirement schemes proposed for the some 1,700 workers employed at Malta Shipyards has pushed the government into extending the timeframe for expressions of interest.

In a statement issued by the Department of Information on Thursday, it was said that the deadline has been extended to 3 November – which, incidentally, is the day when the budget for 2009 will be presented – following the successful take-up of voluntary early retirement and redundancy schemes.

These schemes, which led to weeks of controversy as the General Workers Union fought hard to obtain even better conditions than the ones that were originally proposed, have been accepted by nearly all the workers, as only 150 employees remain on the company’s books.

This has made it much easier for potential investors to consider taking over the shipyards, encouraging the government to extend the deadline, thinking that firms which had previously thought would have dismissed the idea because of the excessive number of workers employed with the shipyards, might now reconsider their position.

What is strange is the different stand that was taken by the government with regard to the publication or otherwise of the number of expressions of interest that were submitted the first time round.

When the first deadline expired last month, the government had first said that it was going to say how many expressions of interest it had received, but once the first deadline was up, it chose not to divulge the information. The Malta Independent, on 19 September, had editorially criticised this turnaround, with Finance Minister Tonio Fenech replying, in a letter published the next day, that the Privatisation Unit had recommended that “stating the number of expressions of interest could deter the actual number of bids that would eventually be presented”.

Yet it seems that this fear has now subsided, because in last Thursday’s statement the government announced that there were 43 expressions of interest for the four facilities that make up Malta Shipyards – Malta Ship Repair, Malta Ship Building, Malta Superyacht and Manoel Island Yacht Yard.

Why did the government first opt to keep the number of expressions of interest close to its chest, and now it has decided to make the number public?

It will be said that circumstances have changed and that it is now the opportune time to disclose the figure to show that, after all, the shipyards did generate a lot of interest among potential investors, which is, on the whole, extremely positive. But, at the same time, will not such a disclosure now “deter the actual number of bids that would eventually be presented”, to quote Minister Fenech?

What, for the government, was a valid reason a month ago no longer seems to be so, and this does lead one to question the government’s consistency in this regard. If the government felt it was wrong to disclose the number of expressions of interest for the reasons it gave back then, then those same reasons should still hold today, even if the circumstances have changed.

Having said this, it must be pointed out that the fact that 43 firms have shown an interest in Malta Shipyards shows the belief there is in its potential. And this number could further increase by 3 November.

Yet, the privatisation process of the shipyard is still far from being concluded. Although one big hurdle – the downsizing of the workforce – has been successfully surpassed, there is still a long way to go. The government has said that all those who have registered or will register will receive a process letter outlining the second stage of the privatisation, and only then will the “real” adjudication process start.