These last few days there were far more people interested in figuring out why the Armed Forces of Malta was brought on board in the new PM-appointed task force on public transport reform than in the Budget 2012 itself.

This is particularly so since budgets have long evolved into a non-event, hewn as they invariably are on endless wish lists – often in full defiance of the ground that is usually laid in the pre-budget documents, even though this time round Minister Tonio Fenech seemed to be in two minds whether to consider the EU warning signal as realistic, down to earth or somewhat distanced from reality. And this notwithstanding the fact that it talked of an increasing government deficit and slowdown in economic growth while he had been long predicting the opposite.

As for TVM, the least said the better. To raise our morale they compared us with the worst of the worst among the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) – Greece and Spain – by sending their correspondents there for interviews during the Sunday TVM news bulletin.

Meanwhile by the time of writing the ‘mystery’ about the Armed Forces’ role has been solved.

From what we have been told it seems that apart from giving buses priority over other traffic between 6am and 9am, the task force has so decided that our already overstretched police force and Armed Forces will be used to respectively wave buses through, while the AFM will be circling overhead every day to monitor traffic flow and identify bus routes with problems. All this when the so-called reform was launched on 1 July this year, almost five whole months ago.

Next thing we know if the reform continues to flounder we might even see our Armed Forces compelled to liaise with Nato and bring on the drones!

Minister Gatt, who is trying to save face after virtually having the reform swept out of his hands on an operational basis, has evidently embarked on a fresh PR exercise to try and convince one and all that his wings have not been really clipped at all. And that he is still calling the shots.

A mere look at his mock self-assertive performance on Iswed Fuq L-Abjad on Net TV last Wednesday as well as all the recent talk in the media of the confidence that he exuded as well as that he was back to being ‘his usual self’ confirmed something I have long suspected – that the umbilical cord between Gatt and Gonzi cannot be severed that easily even though he has repeatedly claimed that he will not be contesting the general elections again.

Meanwhile his Head of Secretariat Manwel Delia was recently made to eat humble pie, by having his prospective candidature within the PN ranks blocked only days after he projected himself as the architect of the reform, months after having been publicly endorsed as a candidate by Minister Gatt’s first cousin Mr Lou Bondi.

While no one had taken seriously his original claim that the culture change that the bus reform would bring along would be tantamount to a revolution, Minister Gatt now seems to have the cheek to also herald the advent of a new second revolution. When it is common knowledge that he has been downsized to as much of an ordinary player within the task force as the Ministry for Home Affairs and the Parliamentary Secretariat at the OPM are.

The measures being proposed by the task force are not only knee-jerk reactions as if we were facing a tsunami where we felt compelled to bring all our Civil Protection forces on board but it is also symptomatic of a government that while trying to minimise the gravity of the dire situation public transport has found itself in, it is at the same time doing its best to try and address a big and bottomless mess that is evidently of its own making.

All this fits within the big picture and overall comments that the EU Commission passed recently in our regard – that notwithstanding sound policies, we invariably come a cropper when it comes to the implementation process.

I must confess that the engaging ambassador who once described Minister Gatt as decisive might have had a point. The only important point she seems to have glossed over was that he screwed up in the process many of the tasks that were left in his hands to carry out.

While I hold no personal brief or grudge against the minister who I find more blunt, direct and colourful than most of his colleagues, I must admit that his political track record leaves much to be desired.

Following is quite a tall order that speaks for itself:

During his political responsibility of the areas concerned we had:

• The vain boast that Air Malta would soon become profitable;

• The Fairmount Scandal at the Shipyards;

• The hike in water and electricity bills;

• The botched conception of ARMS Ltd;

• A WSC that dragged its feet in accepting Mepa’s recommendation to take action against perpetrators of environmental crimes;

• The BWSC scandalous affair;

• The saga linked to the extension of the power station, heavy fuel oil and all;

• Sea Malta’s premature death;

• The missed targets regarding SmartCity in spite of his public boasting that some 2,600 jobs had already been contractually secured.

And on and on and on. No wonder that the utilities were passed on to an already overstretched Minister of Finance by the Prime Minister some time back.

Meanwhile these last few days the NAO published a shocking report on the setting up and operations of ARMS Ltd.

With Gonzi very much back against the wall, there seems to have been a concerted effort in the pro-government leaning and PN friendly media to play down the summary conclusions of the said report. Usually such reports even when dealing with far more secondary issues are given far more importance and prominence in the printed media.

The salient highlights of the report are sufficiently shocking.

• The nature of the project was changed during the tendering process;

• Operations were decoupled from the original Business Process Outsourcing model requested;

• To date, despite take over by ARMS Ltd and the implementation of the new, state-of-the-art, systems, no significant changes to the meter reading process have been registered;

• A considerable number of accounts were ‘locked’ and were not having bills issued. This is one critical area where ARMS Ltd has continuously failed to ensure success. The quantity of locked accounts remains high in spite of various efforts made over a number of months;

• The monitoring process fails to offer an updated and more holistic and truer picture of operations, output and outcome at ARMS Ltd to both the Company’s Management and the Board of Directors;

• Various IT-related issues were identified by NAO’s commissioned technical expert;

• ARMS Ltd lacks a dedicated Customer Care function;

• Other deficient critical areas concern HR and Revenue Assurance.

All readers will surely agree that this is neither the symptom nor the consequence of the global, regional and European crises that are rocking many of our neighbours.

It is more a question of sheer incompetence by a jaded administration that has long lost the plot and is way, way beyond its sell-by date.

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www.leobrincat.com

Leo Brincat is the Shadow Minister for the Environment, Sustainable Development & Climate Change