Just for the record, I would like to quote from the personal copy registered in the documents that I inherited from my late father, Joseph Spiteri (1908-1995), who was revenue clerk in the then Water and Electricity Department during the early post-war years until 1956.

1) Extract from minute addressed by the manager, WED, to the Secretary to Government, dated March 29, 1947: “I am glad that the Board of Arrears are satisfied that no efforts were spared by this department to collect water and electricity dues. This is borne out by the very small sum left outstanding, which represents .09 per cent of the total revenue that could have been collected. I consider that the staff at the head office entrusted with the collection of these dues are to be congratulated on their very fine achievements” (WED 208/47).

2) Extract from the report of the Board of Arrears, dated June 18, 1952: “Although the arrears due by private parties during 1949 and still outstanding are higher than those in the previous year (£232.9s.7d.- £107.17s.11d.) they still form a very small proportion of the total revenue collected. During 1949, an average of 100,000 bills representing 60,000 accounts were attended to each quarter and a sum of £527,975 was collected during the year.”

In light of the €50,000 bonus for ARMS Ltd CEO, I might add that my father never received any bonus or extra allowance for this work. In fact, this was considered within the normal range of the grade of higher executive officer and, consequently, his request for such an allowance was turned down.

I might also point out, again for the record, that the maximum salary of an HEO in 1948 was £480.

Nevertheless, my father did not die a pauper, neither a rich man. He was never after money. Like many family men of his generation he strove to live within his means. The real treasure he felt he should bequeath to us, his sons, was a sense of duty and responsibility towards our fellow citizens.

Those were the days which, in the shadow of the current ARMS debacle, I look upon, as an aging septuagenarian, with a sigh of nostalgia. To the days when petty clerks managed to achieve so much with so little, nay, with handwritten minutes and ledger entries.

Many waters have flowed under the bridge carrying the water and electricity services (inter alia) since those distant years. I leave it to the reader to ascertain whether these waters have by now become cleaner or otherwise.

I feel tempted to ask, to end with a quip, whether meritocracy can be achieved simply by offering inflated salaries to blue-eyed persons. Is this just another instance where Hutber’s law is the law of the day or, in the biting words of the Duc Francois de Rochefoucauld, is it that “the world more often rewards the appearance of merit than merit itself”?