In the wake of the controversy that shrouded this year's edition of the annual charity event L-Istrina, Public Broadcasting Services is expected to make a number of changes to ensure a better performance next year.
PBS chairman Clare Thake Vassallo said the important thing is to have people with experience working on the programme to ensure a sense of continuity. This was one of the problems they had this year because the company entrusted with the organisation was new to L-Istrina, she said.
"This event is too delicate to play around with. People have come to depend on it. I believe in a balance between experience and new ideas," she added.
She said some form of mechanism will be set up, such as a board of trustees, which would ensure at least one coordinator to work on the project full-time all year round in order to keep it alive.
This is an idea that founder Peppi Azzopardi has been harping on for at least three years but his suggestions had never been taken up.
Another thing that will be up for discussion is whether prize giving should be the focus of the programme or whether the charity marathon should be based solely around altruistic donations and light entertainment.
Yet, Dr Thake Vassallo does not think this is an issue. "Who are these people who are telling others how they should give their money? It is up to people to decide when to donate. No one complains about lotteries and gambling halls; those can ruin people's lives. L-Istrina is a fundraiser for people in need. Who cares if people have a chance to try their luck while giving money? This is not a moral issue, it is a chance to help in any way we can."
She said that L-Istrina is the most transparent of activities, with three auditing firms involved in every aspect of the event to ensure that not a cent is unaccounted for.
When contacted, Mr Azzopardi said he did not feel there was anything wrong with the "lottery" format because the final aim is still reached, that of giving money to people in need. But he would welcome a discussion on whether or not to keep giving out prizes.
Mr Azzopardi, who has always presented the programme, said that, although there was always room for improvement, he did not want to fuel the fire of controversy further and he preferred to discuss directly with PBS about what can be improved.
"The controversy does not hurt L-Istrina, it hurts those people who need the money that we collect," he said.
This year, the event was outsourced to the companies Take Two and MK Leisure and the format changed slightly with a new venue, more entertainment and longer pre-recorded video features which the organisers hoped would ensure better television and so attract more donations.
But three hours into the show, PBS decided to scrap the prepared entertainment and focus on prize giving when it was noted that not enough calls with donations were coming in.
This enraged those who worked on the event and, although the companies have not made their positions official, some people who preferred to be left unnamed complained that weeks of hard work had been lost and hours of footage were left unaired. They also said the lottery format defeated the spirit of L-Istrina.
Mr Azzopardi thinks that, while changes during the show were expected, the format should have been decided on before instead having such drastic changes being made after the programme had started. He also feels there should always be coordination between PBS and the organisers. But he also thinks that the aim should be to maximise the final sum collected.
"I am not into teleshopping but I have done more than that for L-Istrina and will continue doing so because I know the benefit it has for people in need. I received phone calls from parents who must go to England to have one of their children donate bone marrow to the other or a woman who cannot afford a funeral for her dying husband. I also know that, one day, I might be that person in need."
L-Istrina had started as a PBS production organised by Mr Azzopardi and other volunteers from his flat in Msida and ran as such for three years before it was turned into the big national charity event it is today.
After 2005, Where's Everybody, Mr Azzopardi's company, decided to move on and leave the show to be organised by other companies. Since then, PBS has each year issued a call for tenders for those interested in organising the event.
Yet, the amount collected has never been able to match the figures that Where's Everybody used to collect.
Gordon Pace, L-Istrina 2007 organiser on behalf of Ir-Razzett tal-Ħbiberija, said that this year's organisers did a good job but the situation was unfair on them.
"There were too many last-minute changes. There needed to be better coordination. If you are chairman of the PBS it is in your interest to keep tabs on the situation before the event rather than asking for changes to be made on the ground. Obviously, that was not done."
He also complained that the format defeated the spirit of charity.
"We are raping the value of L-Istrina. This is not just any fundraising event. It is endorsed by the President and it is a national event. It should be exemplary to other fundraisers not the other way round. The annual fundraiser of Id-Dar tal-Providenza should inspire us. They collected more than €500,000 without giving a single prize."
He said that after he organised L-Istrina he was left with an "ugly" feeling inside. "I felt like I sold my soul. It stopped being about giving and started to be about how much people could win and a race to top last year's figure."
He also thinks that when so many prizes are given out, the logistics and work involved to distribute them to all the winners all over the island takes up quite a big chunk of the energy that may not be worth the effort.
But Mr Azzopardi thinks otherwise. "Why should other charities and political parties use the lottery format to generate money and not L-Istrina? What is so bad about it?"
cperegin@timesofmalta.com