Former Nationalist Cabinet member Edwin Vassallo, now mayor of Mosta, must be among the very few willing to think Transport Malta can deliver. Most will disagree and would readily mention many reasons why. The same can be said for other regulators too.
Mr Vassallo thinks it would be more efficient for Transport Malta to make use of local councils’ funds to build and maintain roads than doing so on a local government level. This could mean that local councils are unable to ensure value for money.
However, the real point at issue is the ability of regulators, or authorities, to serve the purpose for which they were set up and for which the taxpayer is forking out very good money.
These bodies are by law meant to be autonomous and independent of the government but it is an open secret that, very often, their strings are pulled from above. It is one thing implementing government policy and another being flagrantly run by ministerial diktat on a daily basis, though some ministers can do it more subtly than others.
These supposedly independent regulators, or, at least, most of them, have allowed themselves to become irrelevant and, at times, ridiculous in the manner they try to defend the indefensible, more often than not, in the form of wrongdoing committed or willed by their political masters.
In bygone eras, eunuchs used to be hand-picked to fulfill certain chores in royal courts or very close to people in very high places without the risk of influencing them. Could the same be happening here again, this time in the shape of authorities?
Take Transport Malta. So significant was this sector to Labour in power that it named its own CEO as the transport watchdog’s chairman. But, then, when there is a public outcry after a senior Transport Malta executive says that the frequent traffic congestion problems were mere “perception”, it is Transport Minister Joe Mizzi who intervenes in a bid to calm the waters.
It is again Mr Mizzi who makes all the announcements about changes in public transport and he can also be apologetic about the shortcomings there.
Usually, a private operator heavily subsidised by taxpayer’s money is blasted when delivering a lousy service and not defended by a ‘veteran’ Cabinet minister. Such is the situation that many commuters are willing to bet their bottom dollar there is something in the ‘commercial’ relationship between the government and Autobuses de León that does not meet the eye.
The Occupational Health and Safety Authority has a vision of developing “a culture which goes beyond the workplace, which adopts a holistic view of health and that values risk prevention”. But how many cases have there been where safety issues have been a concern ?
Ask around and most will complain that the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority is rarely by the consumers’ side and that it is not at all proactive in protecting consumers.
For a long time, the Malta Communications Authority allowed service providers to take advantage of mobile phone users and the Malta Financial Services Authority was found wanting when a long string of allegations emerged on bogus companies being registered in Malta and the alarm was raised when the names of gaming companies allegedly run by the mafia and making use of fiduciary services here emerged in an investigation by Italian investigators.
The authorities/regulators should receive some serious attention from the powers-that-be before the European Commission starts making noises.