Yellow to turquoise... and red?

It is 8.30 p.m. and flight KM615 is en route to Malta International Airport from Rome. As per my usual habit, I grab a copy of The Times (of Malta) and, once seated, flip through the headlines to catch up with what has been happening in Malta.

A funny habit this, notwithstanding the trappings of Wi-Fi and mobile internet. However, there is always some news that escaped me while overseas.

The talk of the town is the changeover from the old yellow buses to the service provided by Arriva in their turquoise ones. The initial euphoria about the start of a “permanent revolution” and the apparent efficiency with which the government tackled the reform and restructuring of the public transport is now overshadowed by what has been, at least so far, an inefficient operation, bad planning, delays, lost drivers and buses that stop or get stuck while on their way to their destination… though more on this later on.

Now remember, I am on an Air Malta flight and, all of a sudden, I have a sense of déjà vu, an odd feeling that I have already seen this script, only with a different set of actors. Oh, yes, Air Malta! Claims of restructuring, CEOs with supposedly impeccable track records and truckloads of experience brought in to usher the reform at Air Malta have been bandied about for aeons.

All these claims proved to be nothing but hot air and the initial fanfare resulted in an inefficient reform and a flawed restructuring process. Much like the public transport reform!

It is no consolation that, unlike the public transport reform, which has been in part hived off to Arriva to implement, the restructuring at Air Malta is to be overseen by the government. If past experience is anything to go by then, God help us.

The restructuring at Air Malta has been left on the back-burner for ages, as if it were of no concern and unimportant. The urgency displayed recently in reforming public transport was completely absent in the past years when it came to Air Malta and when it was clear that the required change was much more pressing.

One simple example: let us not forget how the national airline’s restructuring plan only made it to the European Commission’s table at the very last minute, risking to jeopardise the possibility of having the required aid and the plan itself thrown out of the window.

The reform at Air Malta has clearly been dragged on indefinitely as there was no political courage to tackle the pressing issues that had to be resolved. Notwithstanding the extreme need for change, the government remained passive.

Did it have to take all these years and an impending bankruptcy to start trimming the unnecessary fat from the airline’s operation, remove the freebies and review what appear to be suboptimal outsourcing contracts?

Unfortunately for us, thepublic, we have to shoulderthe effects of this bad management.

It is our money, levied from us by an overbearing tax burden, which will have to make good for early redundancy schemes and handsome pay packets to past CEOs and CFOs who just left when the going got tough.

Earlier on I promised to refer to the public transport reform again. I find it really disheartening that the authorities seem to find solace and pride in the fact that, at last, we have a terminus that has basic shelter facilities or that the terminus will have a smaller footprint because the buses will now be operated more efficiently.

These are aspects the government should have seen to since, at the end of the day, it was responsible for regulating either the service itself or the authority responsible to regulate the provision of public transport.

The introduction of more environmentally friendly buses should have been seen to many years ago and could have easily been tied to the subsidies paid out of our funds.

Air-conditioned buses, al­though highly commendable, will not make up for the bad route planning process undertaken or sanctioned by the government and which, as we are now informed by Arriva’s international CEO, will be revised in six months’ time.

At the end of the day, both reform outcomes are attributable to the same would-be change agent: the government. In both instances, the government has been found lacking in its ability to bring about change, to improve where necessary. Does this mean there is a need to change the change manager before it is too late?

The author is a management and business administration graduate with a keen interest in political campaigning and political marketing.