This week in parliament, that is convening both in the mornings and evenings, with various committees in full swing too, we discussed, among other matters, the estimates of the Enemalta Corporation.

It is a place where I have entered and was welcomed, since becoming a parliamentary assistant in the Finance Ministry. Before being taken on board, my perception of Enemalta was that of a place where everything somewhat struggles to function, where everything is old and obsolete, where workers are not interested in their job, where inefficiencies were rampant, which meant that the corporation loses money. And, while this was happening, the corporation sent us water and electricity bills.

And unless we change this, by means of TV programmes, the bad perception will prevail in the rest of the population. The Opposition keeps on drumming up these subjects over and over again. And they stick. I compare the situation to the likes of a journalist who does not sign an article he pens, based on information passed on to by a friend, and gives it his bias. Like untrue facts that go uncontrolled, in a world of make believe. But in Malta we are so few, and we do know what goes about.

Back to Enemalta. I did attend a few meetings there, met a lot of the staff in every grade, had a look into its operations, and attended a meeting on the buying of oil, the contracting of foreign exchange as well as insights into the future. I must conclude, in a very reasoned manner, and not in any way political, that the staff there are experienced people who love their work, and who are responsible in all that they do.

From bottom to top, I felt a feeling of belonging, sometimes pride in being an employee at Enemalta. They provide us with electricity from very old sources, probably bought second-hand already, and have kept them going for so many years. Admittedly there may have been staff who could do better, and here is what one worked on, as the recent agreement between the corporation and the GWU, which improves the conditions of its workshop employees, does provide for more efficient work practices.

The ongoing maintenance on both power plants is yet another salient point. Today we boast that all maintenance works that have been completed are within the estimated schedule. These works will help to improve the costs and plant efficiency.

The training that goes on and the educating of all employees in the environment management system is another feather in the corporation’s cap. This training includes simple tasks such as waste separation and recycling to more complex issues.

I was also pleasantly surprised that, after all the hype of people’s health in the south, the report issued lately shows that the national average of cancer rate is higher than the cancer rate in the south. This bursts another bubble spread by certain politicians and other media that the power stations have affected negatively the people in the south.

However success is not what some media want to hear, what certain politicians constantly preach. What we have to be all very careful of is that the basis on what to work on is there, but only through full cooperation by all, would the corporation became the success it should be.

We must continue building on the good, discarding the bad. There should be a common goal to bring all the workforce in line, and this will also help to eliminate the bad perception I wrote about earlier.

In the meantime enjoy the World Cup that has given us a lot of surprise results. If such results were obtained in Malta we would already be calling for investigations on corruption. Small Malta.

Robert Arrigo is parliamentary assistant in the Finance Ministry