Agreement on port work practices expected 'in coming weeks'

Communications Minister Censu Galea said yesterday that talks on port work practices are expected to be concluded in the coming weeks, so that the benefits of port reform would be fully realised.

Speaking in Parliament during the debate on the Malta Maritime Authority estimates, Mr Galea said the port reform was already yielding benefits in two areas: Throughput through Grand Harbour increased last year and the amount of investment was already higher than the total investment of the old cargo operator.

Mr Galea said that over the past year the Maritime Authority had concluded work on the Grand Harbour trade centre with new offices provided to several operators.

The former offices of the Merchant Shipping Directorate had been transferred to Rempac, the pollution combating centre, which was expected to transfer its activities from Manoel island shortly.

The MMA had also continued its work on the Mgarr and Cirkewwa harbours. In the former, structural works were in the concluding stages and he hoped that passengers would be able to realise the benefits of this investment in the coming weeks when, at last, passengers and cars would be channelled separately as they boarded and disembarked from the ferries.

At Cirkewwa, the project over the past four years had seen the reclamation of 11,000 square metres of sea for new parking and marshalling areas and the old quay was extended by 90 metres. As a result the number of sailings that were cancelled because of rough weather had been reduced. The ferries could now use two quays at Cirkewwa and there was a basis for a future third quay in this harbour which could be used for other activities.

Mr Galea said the MMA had also submitted an application for the development of dolphins - which are bouys for mooring vessels - outside Mgarr harbour to handle one and possibly two cruise liners.

The minister said detailed studies were being held on the state of the various quays and breakwaters around Malta. It was clear that investment running into millions of liri would be needed to maintain and improve these facilities and it was hoped some of this funding would come from the EU, along with funding for the terminal facilities at Cirkewwa.

Touching on other areas of the MMA's activities, the minister said the Merchant Shipping Directorate had continued to improve the quality of the Maltese shipping register, which was now in the white list of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding.

Vessels which had been giving a bad reputation to the Maltese flag had been struck off, but the register was now growing again and was soon expected to return to the level of 24 million tons.

Labour MP Joe Mizzi said he was impressed by the way the minister had given little importance to port reform, but there again, this was not a surprise because the government had not delivered on its promises to improve efficiency and cut costs for port operations. Indeed, not only had the reform not come about, but the new operator was already making losses. The past months had shown confusion in harbour operations, undermining the credibility of the MMA as the regulator.

Mr Mizzi said space was at a premium at Grand Harbour and, therefore, efficient use needed to be made of all available areas. It was, therefore, amazing how the Malta Maritime Authority had utilised a prime site for the building of a trade centre which could have easily been built elsewhere. To make matters worse, half of the trade centre offices was empty and the authority was still seeking tenants for them. Where there personal interests for this trade centre to have been built in this way?

Turning to the Cirkewwa/Mgarr project, Mr Mizzi said these works were massively over-budget and over-due. The projects were to have cost Lm8 million and should have been concluded in 2003, but in 2006 the minister said the estimate was Lm14.5 million, because of a change of plans. Was it true that the bill had since gone up to Lm19 million? And for how long would completion be pushed back?

To add insult to injury, it now appeared that the ferries would not be able to operate efficiently from Mgarr unless they, or the structure, was modified.

Mr Mizzi said there were serious security problems at the ports which the government needed to tackle. At Msida Marina, for example, yachts took on water and used electricity after 7 p.m. without charge because there was no surveillance. A horse had been brought in on a yacht one night without anybody noticing.

Indeed the marina was in a state of disrepair and even the fire extinguishers did not work. Even the toilets and showers were in a deplorable state. Was this being done on purpose for the marina to be sold off to somebody cheaply?.

Turning to merchant shipping, Mr Mizzi said the government had boasted that ships over 25 years were not being registered. But it seemed they were. For in a reply to a parliamentary question, the minister had said that MMA sometimes considered registering older ships belonging to owners who had younger ships on the register, to prevent them going elsewhere.

The truth was that when a certain agent went to register older ships, they were registered. The MMA and the chairman knew this and were allowing it. All agents knew this was happening and had complained.

Mr Mizzi insisted that the interests of Maltese sailors needed to be protected. Qualified and experienced Maltese sailors were being replaced by foreigners who were willing to work for an excessive number of hours for a pittance. This not only went against workers' rights, but it was also dangerous.

The Labour MP underlined the oil pollution risk the island faced should there be a major spill. The country was ill-prepared for such an emergency, with equipment costing hundreds of thousands of liri jammed and inoperable.

Labour MP José Herrera complained that, yet again, the financial estimates were not accurate. The excuse last year was that a new auditing system had been introduced but this was the second year and greater accuracy was to be expected. Last year, a Lm1.7 million loss was projected but there was a surplus of Lm100,000.

Operating expenses last year were projected at Lm1.6 million. He had pointed out that this was an exaggerated estimate and now he was being proved right because the actual expense was Lm1.1 million. Still, Lm1.1 million was a lot. Yet operating expenses close to Lm1.6 million were again being forecast.

Revenue from yacht berthing was projected at Lm600,000 last year but yielded only Lm430,000. Once berths available for yachts had since increased, why was revenue being projected at Lm130,000 lower?

On the MMA's new offices, Dr Herrera said it was estimated that expenditure on buildings, office furniture and equipment would be Lm2,170,000. This was exaggerated considering this was a company with a surplus of just Lm100,000. Lm2 million was more than half the value of the authority's commercial activity.

Turning to ship registration, Dr Herrera said the sector was doing well and formed an important part of financial services.

Indeed, the Maltese shipping register was the fifth biggest worldwide. Dr Herrera said that this had not been an easy year for ship registrations because of a strong lobby for tougher regulations for ships registered in the EU. The Maltese government, together with the governments of Cyprus and Greece had rightly assumed a strong position and used the veto for the first time. The Labour opposition supported the government on this score.

Winding up, Minister Galea said it was true that port reform was not yet concluded and one of the most important targets had still not been reached.

The replacement of the operator has not yet eliminated the confusion in the way the ports operated. Nonetheless, an investment of close to Lm3 million had already been made. These were necessary for the operator to be competitive.

There was also a commitment for an investment of Lm7 million in the future. No new company returned a profit from the very beginning. To do so, it would have had to increase tariffs rather than reduce them by five per cent.

Grand Harbour had been neglected by the previous operator but the new operator had increased the number of trailers by 50 per cent - from 300 to 450. Mr Galea said that the port tariff system was very complicated but it seemed agreement was being reached to cut down certain expenses. The reform would continue and work practices had to be changed.

On the Mgarr/Cirkewwa terminals, the minister reiterated that Mgarr was nearing completion and this was radically different from the original proposal of 1994/1995. In 1998, the opposition had said that the project was to cost Lm40 million. So even if Lm19 million were spent, this would still be less than half the sum the opposition had claimed the project would cost.

One of the differences between the current and original plans was the 200-car car park which had been imposed by the ADT. On port security, the minister said that if Mr Mizzi knew of any yacht owner who abused, he had a duty to inform the police. It was his responsibility to do so.

The estimates were later approved after a division, the opposition voting against.