Air Malta continues to be in the news. The first piece of news was the strange decision of Air Malta’s management to ask the police to investigate Capt. Dominic Azzopardi’s accusations of irregularities in the way the company handles cargo transport. I find Air Malta’s request not only odd but also irrational.
At the moment, there are serious accusations against the current Police force for lack of action and/or investigation with regard to more serious crime. The Malta Independent has written quite a few articles about this and the incoherent way the present Acting Police Commissioner is operating. My perception is that the Police today are far more inclined to look into cases that Government wants the Corps to investigate while ignoring more serious cases that Government wants the Police to disregard. Such behaviour only encourages people to have even less faith in our legal system and our Police Force.
In the case of Air Malta, the first question to ask is whether there was any need for the company to request the Police to investigate. In normal circumstances, the Company should have first started an internal investigation before turning to the Police to investigate the Union Leader’s claim.
Based on the findings of its internal investigation, Air Malta would next decide whether it had a case or not. Should malpractice have been found, the company would be duty-bound to proceed. If no corruption was found, the Company should make its findings known. In normal circumstances, after receiving a request, the Police would ask - in this case - Capt. Azzopardi for an interview at the Depot. Should he refuse to be interrogated, the police have the power to arrest him. But in reality, the police are in no position to investigate any allegations related to Air Malta’s cargo. No one, in his right senses, would expect the Police to investigate the books of Air Malta. Instead Air Malta’s modus operandi only goes to show that the Company is primarily concerned in silencing dissent. If indeed there is abuse, Air Malta has every interest to hide it and silence those who are blowing the whistle.
Had Air Malta wanted to act responsibly, it would have asked independent reputable external auditors to check the cargo issue. Since it stands to reason that Air Malta’s books are regularly audited according to law, thus by engaging independent professionals to investigate what is being alleged, would be proof that things are done seriously at Air Malta. But none of this has happened. Instead, Air Malta jumped the gun and immediately roped in the police to investigate, which should be interpreted by those who are in the business that something is seriously wrong with Air Malta's management.
Professional independent auditors would know precisely what to look for and how to go about getting to the bottom of this issue. Indeed one would have expected the Company to first do the job internally with its own staff carrying out the preliminary checks and move on if internal personnel were incapable of getting to the bottom of the problem. What is the point of having administrative staff etc. if at the first hiccup, the top brass calls in the police? Has there been a robbery, a murder, a rape? No, no such thing. What we have here, is a case of alleged serious abuse of cargo transportation. And it seems that Capt. Azzopardi's claims hold water. A responsible organization would first carry out its own investigations and then decide what best to be done; in such cases the police are the last resort, not the first. But Air Malta has deemed fit to go running to the Police like a little child who goes crying to its parent when he has had a bad fall and hurt himself.
In reality, all Air Malta wants is merely to wage war on the unions and its members. It is shameful that Air Malta is also failing to renew the Collective Agreement. The truth is that its strategy of terror is failing abysmally.
Yet Air Malta is willing to go on bungling as it has been doing year after year, as long as its modus operandi is not disturbed in any way. Now Air Malta is resorting to public sympathy by claiming that if a strike is called, the company will make daily losses of thousands; nothing new here. Air Malta has been making losses for quite some time and it is too convenient to blame the employees. Air Malta should be asking itself why are employees so determined to go on strike.
It is time that Air Malta pulled up its socks and operated as a true serious company with all the good and the bad that running such an organization entails. It must remember that its employees are part and parcel of the company, indeed one of its major assets and deserve to be heard apolitically. After all, Air Malta is their bread and butter too. Fear of listening to them only shows that Air Malta’s top brass is either not competent enough or even more critically, it is instructed not to do so for unknown ulterior motives.
We need to stop saying that Air Malta has problems because it is small and therefore it cannot compete in our new globalized world where big companies reign though some have already started to demerge. Perhaps one ought to re-read Schumacher's Small is Beautiful.
Where there is a will there is a way. Big companies like Air France, British Airways and Alitalia also had their share of problems in the past and some were overcome successfully, others less so. Nevertheless, we cannot stick to the past and state that the present ailments were caused by wrong decisions taken donkey’s years ago.
I doubt that this Government has any sincere will to save Air Malta, particularly when the first decision it took in 2013 was to recruit more personnel. This addition of 400 new employees, if true, did not augur well for any company in troubled waters.
On the other hand, I agree with those who are claiming that the profitable sections of Air Malta were sold off, drastically reducing the Company's profitability. I can add that there were profitable air routes that strangely enough Air Malta disposed of. Why? The least one can charitably state is that this was a strategic mistake. I just keep hoping that when this and other decisions were being taken, someone, somewhere, was not lining his pockets.