The Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority should be free from bureaucracy and be customer friendly in order to make consumers feel at ease and feel they could come forward with their complaints, Labour MP Carmelo Abela told Parliament.
The Bill aimed to set up an authority which would ensure fair competition and protect consumers. Yet one had to analyse how this would be put into practice. Who would be in charge of investigating complaints?
There should be better representation and more consultation with consumers. Furthermore there was the need for more education and awareness. The authority should be in continuous contact with consumers and keep them updated on developments.
Mr Abela said that it was vital to increase competition because this was in everyone’s interest. The size of the market tended to lead to the creation of cartels and the Bill offered the opportunity to regulate the market.
He agreed with fellow MP Owen Bonnici regarding the issue involving Go and Melita. Even though the service providers were changing their contracts, consumers were still being charged the same price. The purchasing power of consumers was continuously being eroded and they couldn’t afford to pay for the services of two service providers.
He believed in the concept of name and shame. In his opinion, if certain companies deliberately abused consumers, it was the Authority’s responsibility to uncover such abuse and publish the names of such companies.
Referring to the Medicines Authority he said that he had analysed the issue and concluded that it should remain an autonomous authority in order to maintain standards and credibility with foreign institutions such as the US Food and Drug Administration.
Mr Abela said that he hoped the Bill would result in an improvement in consumer rights especially with regards to fair prices, good service, less bureaucracy and more justice.
Noel Farrugia (PL) said the Authority faced challenges in sustaining and promoting direction to protect the consumer. The law was there to protect the consumer and not the direction of any minister.
He mentioned a case where medicine given to schizophrenic patients was also given to patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and from dementia when the US Food and Drug Administration and the EU medicine agency had, five years ago, announced that this practice was inappropriate and should stop.
Health authorities in Malta also informed medical practitioners not to give this medicine to dementia sufferers. Five years ago the then Minister of Health had said the government would consider the issue, but today the government was boasting that this medicine was being given for free to dementia and Alzheimer’s patients.
Mr Farrugia said nobody seemed to heed aspects in health which could help to give consumers better care.
He had once asked former Social Policy Minister John Dalli if there was any chance of giving a service on cryopathy, in which surgeons froze body parts to allow them time to win over bacteria which had not yet been conquered. Failure to do this would lead to antibiotics not winning over the unconquered bacteria, and patients would become ill again.
On another tack, Mr Farrugia said the government spent millions of euro on reverse osmosis to produce clean water but then let rainwater flow into the sea.
Providing parents with reliable information on a newborn’s blood type and advice on what diet would be best suited would make for better consumer service even for that newborn, at a time when it could not express itself about its feelings. With such a system, many problems would fall by the wayside without causing undue stress to the baby.
Anybody who was not aware of these far-reaching occurrences could never be in a position to procure the best for consumers.
There were 4,500 people in Malta who were not accorded expensive medicines for free, yet the government was forking out good money for medicines that it knew did not really work. A serious examination of conscience was needed, Mr Farrugia said to ensure that what was being legislated would give the incumbents of the new authority the right tools to give consumers the best possible service.