Cynthia Busuttil
Gatt should resign if bills are wrong - UĦM
11 unions call for MRA chairman's resignation
The Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin will call for Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt's resignation if a report detailing the way the water and electricity tariffs were worked out, is found to be misleading.
"This is a whole mess mastered by Austin Gatt," union general secretary Gejtu Vella said.
He added that the process of social dialogue had failed and the water and electricity tariffs issue was completely mishandled.
The Malta Resources Authority is expected to explain its impact assessment report to the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development in the coming days, and Mr Vella said the union would be asking the regulator to look into the issue in detail, including the present tariffs.
"If it transpires that the bills are wrong, Minister Gatt should resign," he said.
The saga, which has been ongoing since October, took a new twist on Friday with conflicting reports on whether the authority would be revising the bills, which have already been issued.
In the past weeks, the UĦM had taken a back seat as 11 other unions battled against the tariffs, because they had come out in favour of the final package.
While the 11 unions said they were promised backdated adjustments by the authority, the regulator categorically denied this.
In fact, MRA chairman Carmel Ellul was uncertain whether the regulator had authority over the issued bills, saying that retroactivity was not mentioned in the MRA's law.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday completely ruled this out: "The MRA does not have the authority to retroactively change the tariffs."
However, he told The Sunday Times, if mistakes were found by the MRA, these would have to be corrected.
Asked what would happen if mistakes were to be found in the tariffs dating back to October 1, Dr Gonzi insisted the authority had already carried out studies which show there were none.
"It (the MRA) has done its projections and presented them in detail. These are all non-existent theories. The MRA has carried out its studies and the exercise was correct," he said.
The unions said the MRA told them its report was finalised two weeks ago, whereas the legal notice that brought into force the new tariffs was published in December.
When it was pointed out that the MRA had not been involved from the start, Dr Gonzi said it was irrelevant when the authority came in, whether at the beginning or the end.
Asked whether people should pay their bills, Dr Gonzi said: "Of course they should pay their bills. Whoever suggests that bills should not be paid is irresponsible, because at the end of the day it is the consumer who will suffer."
On Friday, the 11 unions called on people not to pay until they received a revised bill, with teachers' union head John Bencini saying that if these took six months to be issued, people should not pay for six months.
Yesterday, the unions stuck to their guns, and called for the imminent resignation of authority chairman Carmel Ellul.
In a joint statement, they insisted that the MRA had promised them a backdated revision, with Mr Bencini saying he had put the question to the authority four times, and was told this would be the case.
The unions said they were shocked by the MRA's denial, and in the coming days will be going to court to take an oath about the meeting's outcome.
On the other hand, MRA kept insisting it had not agreed, recommended, or tried to give the impression that it would be carrying out a backdated revision.
It said some union representatives might not have understood how a revision of tariffs is carried out, and assumed the authority would be directly revising bills which have already been sent.
The MRA also rejected the union's proposal to call for bills to stop being issued until the revision is carried out. The authority said it was prepared to meet the unions again for further explanations.
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J Busuttil
Feb 2nd 2009, 08:57
The 11 unions have never challenged the workings of the bills but who will benefit or not. Gejtu Vella is speaking about 'wrong bills' which is a different thing. Gejtu Vella' s remarks shows clearly that UHM has no strings attached.
Joe Galea
Feb 2nd 2009, 08:46
@L Bonnici: If Austin Gatt resigns a lot of good is done as he is the most Minister causing one dictatorial blunder after the other. On every front he is failing and with his arrogance he is unbearable. The Pn will benefit a lot from his resignation as he is a big liabilty to the party.
GonziPN should call it a day and at least should retract the tariffs and at least leave the system as it was before. It is clear as water that the GonziPn invented the environment excuse to raise the tariffs just to strip more money out of everyone's pockets to cover the mess ENEMALTA is in. What a mess of a government, confusion reigns on all fronts!!!
lgalea
Feb 1st 2009, 22:40
c.camilleri
Prove it.
I will not pay before the last day.
Furthermore, why should I pay the bill when according to the Minister in October the unit cost should have been 16c1 but EneMalta worked it out at 16c8 per unit?
This is sheer daylight highway robbery by Gonzipn.
Jimmy Magro
Feb 1st 2009, 20:30
@c.camilleri
Thank you for your patethic comments. The issue is that everyone agrees that this has been a big mess. Since you seem not to understand the matter, I would recommend that you take up another subject. On your seocnd blog, I wonder who provided you with the information that all bills have been paid.
Jeremy J Camilleri
Feb 1st 2009, 19:16
I think UHM shoudl do a damage limitation programme, and well....SHut up.....
c.camilleri
Feb 1st 2009, 17:49
How long is this soap opera going to last. Do the unions know that the majority of the bills received have already been paid. Most of the people are simply fed up and do not care any more about what the unions say.
G Camilleri
Feb 1st 2009, 17:20
UHM immediately had agreed with the Tariffs, then it made a U-Turn last week when it insisted that the tariffs should be revised, now it asks Minister Gatt to resign. If there is somebody who should resign it is Gejtu Vella and William Portelli. Is CMTU now going to apologize to MUT? Let us not forget that MUT were suspended by William Portelli and Co because MUT from the very beginning stood up to be counted with the other ten Unions. These 11 Unions have now gained the respect of all.
c.camilleri
Feb 1st 2009, 17:06
@ Jimmy Magro How sweet from an ex official of the Labour Party. You were hopeless to straight out the mess in your party and now you give lessons how to all how to tackle our national problems. Prosit.
Jimmy Magro
Feb 1st 2009, 15:05
Resignations will solve nothing. The people want an inquiry on how EneMalta runs its business; who directs its management; who took decisions as from 2003, and why EneMalta has been made a political ball. The people must go out on the streets to speak out. It seems that Government (or politicians are arrogant one way and the trade unions leaders are arrogant as they decide on the people's behalf).
There have been very few Ministers making a press conference saying that we have decreased expenditure here or there by 10,000 euros. The only thing they speak about how much money they are going to spend. Why - beacuse the more the Ministry spends the more pockets are laughing at the taxpayers. With all the money spent during the last 20 years Malta should have been converted into Palm City in California.
The Unions are weak and they do not have a strategy. The Government is arrogant. More effective action needs to be taken to put the message across. If dialogue has failed there is only one solution. Fill the streets with working families and everyone will join. The Unions must organise a national concert for justice and economic dialogue.
L. Bonnici
Feb 1st 2009, 14:02
What good would it be if the minister resigns?
I still haven't understood the concept of this thing... It's like bailing oneself out rather than trying to find a better solution!
Am I right?
lgalea
Feb 1st 2009, 13:19
Gejtu, fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.
Byron Camilleri
Feb 1st 2009, 12:40
Good point I Abela
V Fenech
Feb 1st 2009, 12:09
Better Late than Never! At least I'm happy that our trade unions are still alive...
I must admit that I never was an admirer of Gejtu Vella or UĦM but this is a very courageous decision. Gejtu Vella needs nobody to tell him to they have committed a foul mistake by becoming the gullible puppets of the Minister. Even though UĦM is very well conscious that it has committed a huge U-turn, it is brave enough to show that it has been mistaken and now needs to compensate for their recent disappointing behaviour.
Hope that the rest of the CMTU members would follow.
joe morana
Feb 1st 2009, 11:20
It transpires that the November 2008 agreement between the Government and the Unions was not based on verified facts but on 'assumptions' as presented by the government ,and all parties to this agrement knew this. Subsequently however , 11 unions questioned these 'assumptions' and requested further clarifications, while the UHM and the CMTU did not and preferred instead to stick to the November agreement based on these 'assumptions'. KPMG and the MRA seem to have reinforced and justified the 11 Unions' reservations regarding the inforamtion basis on which the November agreement was reached . So why blame it on Austin now? Some thorough homework then would have been more appropriate.
G.Farrugia
Feb 1st 2009, 11:17
Good point I.Abela. UHM and CMTU were the ones who rushed into agreement with the Government. Discussions are still going on thanks to 11 unions who represent 60% of unionised workforce. Were it for UHM, we've all shut up and paid the bills at exorbitant rates.
Gejtu Vella is no longer credible. His call for Gatt's resignation is bot just a U-Turn, but opportunism at its best.
I Abela
Feb 1st 2009, 10:47
What a huge U-TURN. Gejtu Vella accepted the government's revised tariffs more than a month ago. Now that the other unions kept on fighting and finally it seems they are getting somewhere....here comes UHM asking for Dr. Gatt resignation. So one might ask.....Dear Gejtu, since you agreed to Dr. Gatt's revised tariffs a month ago, shouldn't you resign as well if it turns out that the bills are wrong ??