Tag: Owen Bonnici

Categories
Mediawatch

The Faces of Impunity

Whenever I watch documentaries about popular uprisings against dictatorships I always end up wondering about those special forces, elite or otherwise, who are called upon to defend the dictator/politician from the crowds. When not in uniform do these soldiers have a life? Do they go home and bring bread to the table to a family that is presumably also suffering under the present regime? What keeps them ticking till the end? What hidden power helps them raise their bayonets or guns against the people who are intent to bring about change?

So much for the troops defending the likes of Ceausescu from the rabble. Jose Herrera seems to have believed that he might need protection of his own from the ‘rabble’ calling for truth and justice outside parliament in November and December. By his own admission there was no particular threat to his well-being (his being an insignificant enabling member of the extended cabinet must have had much to do with this).

And yet Jose’ deemed it fit to dig into the public’s pockets to adorn his entourage with gorillas to ensure his safety. Yes, you read that right. By way of direct order Jose’ did what our Labour politicians seem to do quite well and appropriated some public money for his own imaginary needs.

Now I know that as in some countries of dubious democratic record, our politicians love to be surrounded with the occasional knucklehead or two – it seems to add to the street cred and helps keep away the fawning fans from touching their holy habits. Jose’s extravagance though goes a step further.

First of all he did not need the security because there was no apparent threat. Second of all even if he did, this did not mean he could fish into the public box and spend 19,000 euros without so much of a “please”.

This happens in Muscat’s Malta (now inherited by dithering more of the same Bobby). Muscat’s Malta that so proudly proclaims to have kicked off reforms to please (among others) the Venice commission. I wonder if these reforms will change the manner of appointment by Decree (of His Holiness Owen) as we witnessed in the case of Jose’s daughter.

Remember how Owen justified yet another public appointment by private decree?

The new Commissioner for Law and daughter of the Minister for the Environment Jose Herrera, Martina Herrera, will earn roughly €11,000 per year, and was selected by the Ministry for Justice Owen Bonnici without any other applicants, the latter has confirmed. The Minister clarified that the appointment of such a role, as stipulated in law, was always placed under his remit’s discretion.

It’s all in the family isn’t it? We weren’t shocked in 2017 so why should we be shocked now. After all the Herrera family’s habit of living off public money is only one example of the hundreds you will find under this administration.

That, my friends, is how corruption feeds itself.

Categories
Corruption

The truth about convenience

truth_akkuza

Saviour Balzan’s performance at yesterday’s Public Accounts Committee must have been a sight for sore eyes and Lord do we have sore eyes on the island. In many ways Balzan has become the champion of all the “hekk hu go fik” stalwarts who will never get enough of (as Ian Borg put it) getting an orgasm out of imagining worse places in their hell that would be reserved for what is left of GonziPN. Part of the reason may very well be that more often than not Balzan gives the impression that he operates on the very kind of substance that fuels (excuse the pun) this kind of voter.

Of course your average voter has every prerogative to elect to vote on the basis of partisan zeal, inbuilt prejudice and repressed anger. The urge to wave the flag in the face of opponents and yell about some tkaxkira is also a prerogative protected by the constitution and the right to universal suffrage. Yes, we are doomed to have the fate of our nation determined by the insufferable partisan who will go on weighing the aptitude of a party to govern not by its potential but by contrasting it to what is perceived as the virulent other.

Not Saviour though, he is a public person as in he is an editor of what for all intents and purposes is a newspaper. Yesterday Owen “the law” Bonnici kick started the waltz of connivance with this “editor” with what he called a “preambolu” (preamble). He informed all and sundry that as the editor of a paper Balzan would not be obliged to divulge his sources. True. Very true. Also redundant. It was just Bonnici’s way of tucking Balzan comfortably in his seat short of providing tea and biscuits and a nice warm cover. I switched off the radio at that point and have the various newspaper reports to go on for what happened after.

First a preamble of my own. What follows will surely provide the various sycophants of the Taghna Lkoll litter to call this blog a “nationalist blog” or a “poison pen” (though we may be older and wiser as a blog but not as important in the machinery and cogs of the system). Experience has shown that worrying about this form of accusation is like worrying that it is raining: best to put on a good waterproof jacket and not get mixed up in the mud that inevitably forms. Let the future be my judge.

Speaking of judges, that was the first impression that Balzan’s deposition seems to give: Judge Balzan was in court. Comfortably seated and welcomed by Bonnici he dispensed opinions as though they were edicts from a judicial platform. “George Farrugia should have been tried in court.” “Lawrence Gonzi lied.” “Tancred Tabone was a scapegoat.” “Tancred Tabone might have been Austin Gatt’s cousin”. In what he probably believes to have been his finest moment he spun and linked story after story, confident in the fact that “his sources are protected” to lead to the culminating “bombshell” (not my words, but one of the papers chose this term). The Shell out of court settlement with the PN government as compensation for having missed out on some tenders. The big news? Simon Busuttil was the lawyer for Shell.

Now, not having the benefit of Balzan’s disgruntled sources (I will assume you can see that for yourself – the disgruntled bit I mean) I can still try to piece together the “facts” provided by Balzan and ask a few honest questions.

  1. There seems to be sufficient evidence pointing to a network of information that led to a skewered oil procurement policy that took place under a nationalist government watch. So far so good. We did not even need Balzan to see that far.
  2. The conflicting evidence as to who was in it up to his teeth and who was not seems to arise from the fact that it all depends on who you accept as source. Would it be George Farrugia the whistleblower? Would it be the Farrugia brothers who according to Balzan’s song were approached as whistleblowers but later dropped in favour of their brother?
  3. Light bulb – as Gru would say. Could it be that those who are now claiming to be victims and unwanted whistleblowers have found a place to vent their side of the story in Balzan?
  4. Could it be that the convenience of these internecine wars and shady suspicions falls right in the lap of Bonnici’s Labour – happy enough to tag along with any mud that is thrown inter partes so long as some of it can be made to sound like it sticks to GonziPN?
  5. And in the light of 4 above, what better manna from heaven than a non-sequitur about a retainer held by the current leader of the nationalist party for an oil company with regards to an out of court settlement related to procurement of AVIATION FUEL that has nothing to do with the procurement of Farrugia’s oil? The important thing for Bonnici and his party is that Busuttil’s name was finally dropped in the context of the Oil Procurement scandal – no matter how vaguely. For the man in the street busily “orgasming” (Ian Borg again) on the GonziPN links this must be heaven. For Muscat a welcome distraction from GaffarenaGate, ChinaGate, ChrisCardonaGate, PremierGate, ODZGate, SandroChetcutiGatesandTowers… heavens where do I stop?
  6. Then there was that bit of magic about Gonzi lying that he did not know Farrugia’s wife – because he regularly received chain prayers from her. Which of course would make me best friends with most Nigerians who insist on trying to send me money at every opportunity they get. The Prime Minister passed on whatever information was received to the secret services but apparently, according to Judge Balzan, they went about their work maladroitly. Of course that should raise questions about the secret service, the police and more but we are not in the PAC for that are we? We need to find mud that sticks.
  7. Finally there’s Austin Gatt. Never a beloved minister. Neither he nor his minions and now MPs were ever going to be seen in a good light of even the most moderate of PN supporters let alone the “hekk hu go fik” brigade. It gets a bit confusing because at one point Tancred Tabone is highlighted as being both the “scapegoat” of the situation as well as the (possible) cousin of the minister. Claudio Grech is guilty of arrogance – I wonder if it is of the same type that we get whenever PM Muscat gets asked an uncomfortable question.

There are worrying implications that result from the Oil Procurement Scandal. In my opinion the most worrying of all the things that Balzan implied yesterday was in fact the weather-vane approach adopted by the police depending on who is in government. That something was definitely amiss in the oil  procurement methods is not hard to deduce. That it is all being lost in a desperate attempt by the government and people bearing grudges against Gonzi’s PN (and now the current PN) to change this into an anti-PN crusade is shameful to say the least.

Our class of politicians – all of it – is what we have as representatives. They are obliged to perform their representative duties in full respect of the mechanisms of democracy, particularly by ensuring that the guarantees of constitutional checks and balances are strong and fully functional. The PN’s efforts at changing and morphing into a party that has left behind the malaise of GonziPN must stick within these parameters. Labour has by now shown clearly that it has no intention to follow the rules of the accountability game.

Moments of “glory” such as these for Saviour Balzan will go down well with the Taghna Lkoll crowd. His convenient (though mostly irrelevant) name dropping will be applauded in most circles. Such moments will do close to nothing to further the cause of solving the problem of corruption that has been clawing at the heart of our system under bipartisan blessing. Worse still they will do nothing at all to open the eyes of the people to the rampant corruption that is taking place daily before their eyes.

So long as the Pied Piper can play the tune….and it seems that it’s an LP… a 10 year tune in fact.

 

 

Categories
Mediawatch

A Mess in Denial

denial_akkuza

The devil used to be in the detail. That was before the Labour government imploded. It’s a bit like what they tell us about some of the stars that we see at night. In truth they are not there, they vanished in a huge explosion a long, long time ago but since it takes light a great amount of time to reach us we still see the stars that are not there.

The Labour government has exploded on all counts. There is barely a ministry or minister who has not got it wrong – and by “it” I mean the whole business of politics. The explosion was gradual, a series of petards that began to hoist Muscat’s roadshow bit by bit. The damage containment was crucially successful at first with the “tu quoque” gambit lasting as long as the dupes who swallowed it allowed. What we are seeing now are the shards and splinters of the explosion flying past our eyes as we look on in disbelief at a government run by a PM who hails from a fireworks importing family get hoist by its own petard. Or petards.

The detail that is not so much a detail now lies in the daily exhibition of denials and weak counterarguments being doctored by government spokespersons, ministers and media. Requests for information turn quickly into denials of the shallowest kind. More often than not “public safety” or “economic sensitivity” are invoked to cover up evident blunders. And the lie is running thin.

Take Michael Falzon’s charade in parliament. The question put to him was clear – has anyone ever benefited from the same ad hoc arrangement that he has. An early retirement that is not really a retirement since he can return back to work with the company whenever he wants  (or at least in 2018). Falzon chose to focus on the sum for early retirement (and thereby distract from the crucial answer).

There were nationalists who got more. Indeed. Possibly. Setting aside the violation of privacy, Falzon failed to explain whether any of these nationalists had the right to return to the bank and get their job back notwithstanding the fact that they had obtained a retirement package. Ad hoc he said, much like the faffing in the last answer he gave before going mum – claiming that he would have to pay the retirement package back “pro rate’. How does that work exactly? Pro rata to what?

Ah the BOV. Good old BOV. The same BOV that is used by the government as a doormat at every opportunity. There it goes making good for 88 million euros out of the hundred something million that the beleaguered Electrogas is supposed to pump into the utopic power station (as promised by Shame On You Wife on Government Payroll). That’s the kind of guarantee no ordinary citizen in Taghna Lkoll Land will ever get. Basically what the bank is saying is that if something goes wrong and Electrogas cannot pay then it is the taxpayers money that will be used to make good. Do you think the government has justified this intervention? You guessed it. Another denial.

Electrogas and BOV that leads us straight to the Chris Cardona farce of a rental contract. If ever anything was evidently drafted ad hoc it is not Michael Falzon’s retirement package but rather Chris Cardona’s hastily drafted rental contract. Should it matter that this contract is signed with someone closely tied to the Electrogas business and that the contract swings excessively in favour of the tenant like no rental contract drafted in recent years has ever done before? Of course it should. We would not care if the implausible rental conditions (practically a gift given the circumstances) were between two normal citizens. But the Economy Minister accepting what is virtually a handout from a person linked to Electrogas. The alarm bells should be ringing. WHat we’ll get is more denials.

Owen Bonnici can wax lyrical about the supposed good the new party financing law will bring but so long as farces as Cardona’s can be carried out in full view then it is all exposed for what it is. A farce. A farce is what went on when Sai Mizzi Liang joined the PM to launch the ever so incredible charade that is being officially referred to as an investment by Huwawei.

The emptiness of this “investment” has been investigated at length elsewhere. We only need comment here that Mizzi Liang’s performance on this and the previous conference where she declared that “Finally we have found her” is below pathetic. Even from the little we could see, the behaviour, the gestures, the little words we got, we could tell that this was someone launched into a position that was far beyond the depth that she could cater for. It might have taken Simon Busuttil a trip to China to gauge that Sai is not fit for purpose but in truth a few minutes of a press conference gave us a glimpse of her absolute incompetence.

The Supernova in the middle of all this explosion is the hapless PM who either lives in denial or who has decided to just live out the next three years as some kind of perilous joyride. While all forms of protocol and institutional balance are thrown to the wind he persists in denying any accusation that his government and its pie in the sky projects (from Sadeen Unis to Medical Schools to Power Stations) is in absolute meltdown. He runs the most expensive cabinet ever that is proving to be the hugest bunch of incompetents ever to have (dis)graced the rooms of government.

It is a mess, in denial.

Categories
Citizenship Politics

In the end there was the Word

promises_akkuzaMinister Mallia will in all probability not resign. He went on record during the “secret” negotiations regarding the IIP scheme that should a residency requirement be included then he would resign from his ministerial position. We are not supposed to know about it  because the negotiations were secret but that secrecy, like virginity, cannot be regained so “Tant pis, monsieur ministre”.

Jason Azzopardi and Karol Aquilina both attest to Mallia’s promise. It would be their word against his, only Karol Aquilina is apparently in the habit of taking meticulous minutes (not like Mintoff’s Cabinet) and neither Owen Bonnici nor the directly interested person have denied Mallia’s promise to resign. Labour of course are trying to make a mountain out of the broken promise of secrecy – during their weekend conference they said that only a child “goes to tell mummy what daddy told him”. Which does beg the question about the kind of families Labour has in mind… but I digress.

The point is that the promise was made during negotiations. Negotiations are built on trust. You trust that the person before you means what he says and would back it up with the necessary action. There would be no point in negotiating if this element of trust went missing. If you do not deliver on what was agreed in negotiations – no matter how secretive they may have been – then you lose your trust rating. You become incredible. The wrong sort of incredible.

Much is being made of the fact that “lawyers are literal minded” and that they believe in “the rule of the law”. The focus though should not be on lawyers but on the diplomacy of politics – whatever the politician’s profession may be (and lets not forget that we now have former disc jockeys in diplomatic circles). Diplomacy is all about negotiation. You can be skillful through conviction or you can be successful through bartering and trade. In all cases you are expected to deliver on your word. Your word counts.

When the EU Commission was sold the idea of the IIP it was immediately clear that it had been given a particular idea of what the revised IIP would consist of. The wording of the first Commission position following the historic agreement included strong words such as “effective residency”. We still do not know whether the revised scheme itself, once made public, will be such as to conform to what the Commission was made to expect in those particular negotiations. Will Joseph Muscat and his Henley & Co. sidekicks (or is it vice-versa?) be true to the words they delivered in Brussels?

Back to Mallia. His position is rather untenable. He may cry foul about the fact that his promise behind the curtains of secrecy was suddenly made public. It does not change the tenor of what is actually happening with regard to the value of his word. Mallia’s position at any table of negotiation is now worthless. His reputation (and in Malta reputation is a big word that covers bloated marketing exercise of the “thick with experienced lawyers” kind) as a convincing criminal lawyer will no longer serve to cover the fact that his word is not worth anything. The opposition will rightly not be able to sit at any negotiating table that includes someone who fails to be true to his word.

When in opposition the Labour party would rant and rave about how the Nationalist Ministers would not resign whenever Labour deemed that it was time for them to go. In this case we have a Labour Minister who himself gave his word that should something happen he would resign. That something has happened. Or at least Joseph Muscat promised the Commission that it will happen. How valuable is the word of a politician? We’ll soon know.

In the beginning there was the word, now all we are left with are politicians.

In un paese pieno di coglioni ci mancano le palle. (reprise)

 

 

 

Categories
Mediawatch

B’xorti tajba

2013-12-20 22.45.57

Lura Malta ghall-btajjel tal-Milied. Sabiħa s-sħana li tilqgħek bi nar u ġġiegħlek taħseb li l-bagalja ħwejjeġ sħan qajla se jintemssu. Inqas sabiħ il-bard ġewwa d-djar li qisu ħadd ma sab tarfha. Dan l-aħħar kull meta niġbor il-karozza tal-kiri u nsuq lejn Paceville inħossni qiegħed fil-film Johnny Stecchino ta’ Benigni u l-frażi dwar kif it-traffiku saret s-saħta kbira tal-pajjiż tibda thewden ġo moħħi.

Kullħadd mgħaġġel. Ftakart fil-program dwar crowd management li smajt dan l-aħħar fuq Radio 4 u dwar kif il-folla ma taħsibx b’moħħ prevedibbli. Li hemm żgur hu li it-traffiku malti għandu numru ta’ regoli innati li jikxfu egoiżmu sfrenat li jiżboq kull sens ta’ kollaborazzjoni sabiex jittaffew il-problemi. Maqbud ġo impromptu traffic jam ġewwa t-trejqiet ta’ madwar Sacred Heart (għax triq reġjonali kellha tiżvojta minħabba l-enneżimu inċident) r-radju weħel fuq il-ONE. L-aħbarijiet.

Tisma ftit dwar l-problemi tal-ittogati li kellhom party ġewwa l-awli sublimi tal-qorti (żibeeeel – kif jgħidu Sempliċiment tat-Triq fl-album “Qum Minn Hemm” li xtrajt mingħand il-Ġugar). Issa apparti li huwa ovvju li l-arrest arbitrarju illi seħħ huwa parti mit-tapizzerija unika u assurda tal-politika istituzzjonali maltija, u apparti li l-indinjazzjoni popolari setgħet tinħass kull fejn tisma jew taqra dwar l-eventi odjerni. Apparti dan kollu. Laqatni l-użu tas-sentiment popolari mis-Segretarju Parlamentari Owen Bonnici – qallu “the people ARE significant”. Xejn ħażin ta’ imma r-retorika tal-poplu li tfakkar f’sommossi u rivoluzzjonijet ma tkunx neċessarja jekk l-istituzzjonijiet jitħaddmu sewwa. Impeachment, Owen, u ħallikom mid-diskorsi dwar x’taħseb il-ġamaħirija.

L-istess Chris Cardona. Mar dar dawra il-ħwienet tal-Belt. Imnalla m’għadekx trid tħallas biex tidħol fil-kapitali wara s-sagħtejn għax issa tal-ħwienet tad-deheb u tat-Tommy Hillfiger jistgħu idawru sold li kien ħarab lejn tas-Sliema sal-Milied ta’ qabel. Cardona qisu ġa għamel survey xjentifiku għax ġa qatagħha li l-kummerċ żdied. Il-Milied it-tajjeb u n-nefqa għaqlija lil kullħadd.

Iżda tal-ONE żammew l-aħjar għall-aħħar. Kellhom servizz dwar it-traġedja li seħħet fit-Tijatru Apollo ta’ Londra. Indarbu 79 ruħ qalulna, 9 minnhom gravi. Issemmew xi anedotti dwar kif xi nies preżenti stħajlu lilhom infushom ġewwa minjiera tant kien hemm trab. Il-qarrejja qalhet li waqa’ “soffett” (sic) u imbagħad ħarġitilna l-coup de grace: “B’xorti tajba ma weġgħux Maltin”. Tiskanta. Kienet tgħaddi din il-frażi, qisha m’hi xejn. Imma filfatt hija riflessjoni ta’ kif jaħsbu bosta nies.

Fejn taf sinjorina qarrejja tal-aħbarijiet tas-Super One? Forsi mhux ix-xorti li żammithom il-bogħod mit-tijatru drammatiku lok ta’ drama. Forsi il-Maltin li qiegħdin għall-btajjel Londra kienu bieżlin ġo Oxford Street u Primark jimlew il-basktijiet tax-xiri u jistgħanaw f’orġja kummerċjali minn dawk li tant tfantas biha l-Onorevoli Cardona. Mhux għalihom il-ħin moħli jaraw ir-reċta dwar “The curious incident of a dog in the night”. L-għażla wisq probabbli tmur fil-kjuijiet quddiem kaxxieri tal-ħwienet tal-High Street Londoniża, jimbuttaw, jixxalaw u fuq kollox jixtru. Is-sentiment popolari hemm qiegħed, taf int. Il-kejl tagħhom, il-kejl tagħna lkoll.

U b’xorti tajba ma jweġġa’ ħadd.

2013-12-21 00.27.39
Paceville. It-triq tan-nies.

 

WARNING: You might find the content of the following video offensive. I’m afraid it might be terminal and it could be too late for a cure. Press play at your own risk.

Categories
Politics

The Stipends…. more or less

A fellow blogger (Alex Grech) recently pointed me to the interesting study of critical discourse analysis and I serendipitously ended up finding this article by a certain Teun Van Dijk called Discourse and Manipulation {{1}}. Oftentimes whenever our politicians speak to us and communicate their ideas we fail to notice how much manipulation is involved. In some books it is called being economic with the truth, in others it is called being deliberately naive and in others it is simply called “acting stupid”.

Former education minister Evarist Bartolo has been frantically facebooking links to articles on Maltastar and l-orizzont reporting his and his colleague Owen Bonnici’s latest pronouncements regarding the reduction in expenditure that the government envisages within the education sector. Owen Bonnici has developed a clear style of the deliberatively naive that tends to stick out more often nowadays. This Labour bonhomme aspiring to ministerial greatness has used this tactic once too often for my liking. Here is the piece that is worrying me:

Labour spokesman for Higher Education Owen Bonnici said on Thursday afternoon that last November Gonzi’s administration presented its budget for 2012 boasting that while other countries were facing problems and taking austerity measures, it was forging ahead and investing more in education.

Bonnici said that now government has reviewed the budget and is cutting its expenditure on the University of Malta (€2 million or -5%), the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) (€770,000 or -5%), the Junior College (€430,000 or -5%) and the Institute for Tourism Studies (-35%). The budget allocated to stipends for students will be reduced by €100,000.

No wonder Varist is ecstatic. He’d love to no longer be the only minister to have embarked on a drastic reform of the stipend system without any consultation whatsoever. The orizzont title goes one further than Maltastar: €100,000 Inqas fi stipendji. That’s 100k less in stipends. Varist and Bonnici went on a trip criticising the reduction in education spending when all the while they failed to highlight the most important issue: the reduction is in planned expenditure {{2}}. Which makes one hell of a difference. Neither is the government proposing to reduce your stipend dear student. The reduction is in what had been planned to be added to the budget for stipends.

Now there are two points I would like to make here. First of all this post should in no way imply that J’accuse is not in favour of a revised and reviewed stipend system. We believe that time has come for such a review but that the review should still take into consideration the incentive for higher education that stipends still are as well as the challenges faced since EU membership. Ireland, for example, has seen a spike in English students seeking cheaper education. I am still convinced that we could argue a special exception allowing stipends for Maltese residents with regards to a comprehensive policy of encouraging higher education in Malta but that discussion is for another day.

As for Owen and Varist. Well. What can I say. These two men are prattikament fil-gvern. I should hope that they are as aware as anyone else that the €40 million euro in cuts on what had been budgeted in November would be required whether the government was nationalist or labour. It is all well and good to criticise the nationalists for having trumpeted their education investment in November only to have been proved wrong by the Commission who has insisted on their cutbacks. That is legitimate.

What is not legitimate is the impression that Owen and Varist are clearly seeking to give that the 100,000€ cuts in the proposed expenditure on stipend will take the form of individual cuts – as in a reduction in the stipend. The current stipend is what it is and the 100k reduction will not affect it (see below in the technical addendum). Varist would love it to be stipendji sħaħ issue all over again. It is not. What I have not heard from the illustrious gentlemen from the opposition is what cuts they would propose to be made from the expenditure budget in order to fulfil EU requirements.

Every Labour spokesperson has shamed government for reducing spending in his particular department of (in)competence. Lovely. The naked truth of the matter is that there must be a €40 million reduction in expenditure. The planned budget MUST shrink. Are we to assume that once in government Labour will be the approximative budgeteer of the “more or less”?

Thanks. But no thanks Owen and Varist.

P.S. Yep. That’s j’accuse in the photo. Thanks to Mark Camilleri for unearthing this shocking reminder of the ageing process.

The Technical Addendum

The 2012 budget presentation can be found here: Budget 2012. It mentions an investment of €58.2 million in University and Junior college. In the Minister’s Budget Speech  we find that government had allocated €22.3 million for stipends. Compare that figure to the €0.1 million reduction that leads Owen and Varist to conclude that your stipend is under threat. I have looked through the PQs featuring Varist and Owen directed at Dolores Cristina with regards to the budget changes. There are only two as far as I can see: PQs number 32681 and 32678. Here is the full Q&A for PQ 32681:

L-Onorevoli EVARIST BARTOLO
staqsa lill-Onorevoli DOLORES CRISTINA (Ministru tal-Edukazzjoni u x-Xogħol):
B’referenza għall-Budget 2012 approvat minn din il-Kamra, tista’ l-Ministru tgħid kemm tnaqqsu flus min-nefqa fil-qasam edukattiv bħala parti mit-tnaqqis tal-€40 miljun mnaqqsa mill-gvern u liema line items tnaqqsu? Tista’ tagħti r-risposta line item line item?

Tweġiba:
Ngħarraf lill-Onor. Interpellant illi l-Gvern ħa deċiżjoni konxja u responsabbli li jnaqqas €40 miljun min-nefqa tiegħu fid-dawl taċ-ċirkostanzi ekonomiċi internazzjonali li komplew jiddeterjoraw fl-aħħar xhur tal-2011. Il-Gvern ried ipoġġi lilu nnifsu f’pożizzjoni li, jekk il-kriżi ekonomika internazzjonali, jerġa’ jkollha impatt fuq pajjiżna kif ġara fl-2009, il-gvern ikollu r-riżorsi neċessarji biex jerġa’ jintervjeni fl-ekonomija u jħares il-postijiet tax-xogħol.

Il-Ministeru tal-Edukazzjoni u x-Xogħol ukoll qed jagħmel l-isforz tiegħu biex inaqqas l-ispejjeż tal-istess Ministeru, kif ukoll id-dipartimenti u l-entitajiet li jaqgħu taħtu. Dan qed nagħmluh billi nirrestrinġu r-reklutaġġ ta’ ħaddiema ġodda fejn dan possibli, nillimitaw fejn possibbli l-overtime u nsaħħu aktar l-effiċjenza fl-operat. Dan mhux qed isir bi tnaqqis f’investiment kapitali, ta’ servizzi essenzjali bħal professuri, lecturers, għalliema, learning support assistants, kindergarten assistants u professjonijiet oħra li jħarrġu u jagħtu sapport lill-istudenti jew ta’ għajnuniet differenti. Ir-restrizzjonijiet fir-reklutaġġ b’ebda mod m’hu se jimpattaw professjonijiet kruċjali fosthom ta’ professuri, lecturers, għalliema, learning support assistants, kindergarten assistants u professjonijiet oħra li jħarrġu u jagħtu sapport lill-istudenti.

Incidentally after consulting Fausto the expert researcher I also got a confirmation that  if one were to look at the Ministerial budget (item 5364) the estimate for stipends had already been reduced once  between 2010 and 2011 – also by €100,000.

Between the 2011 and 2012 estimates there was an increase of €0.5 million (500k). Now that the estimates have been revised (as per EU requirement and as Owen and Varist are complaining) for a reduction of 100k that still leaves a NET INCREASE in projected expenditure of €400k (€400,000) for 2012.  Where that increase will go, if it goes anywhere, is anybody’s guess and if anything suspicions should focus on creative budgeting but insofar as the original allegation regarding some vanishing stipends is concerned. Take it for what it is: hogwash. Or as we could politely call it… manipulative discourse.

Also. In case you were wondering. The Ministry of Finance also published a press release denying any decrease in stipends.

[[1]] Discursively, manipulation generally involves the usual forms and formats of ideological discourse, such as emphasizing Our good things, and emphasizing Their bad things. At all these levels of analysis it is shown how manipulation is different from legitimate mind control, for instance in persuasion and providing information, for instance by stipulating that manipulation is in the best interest of the dominated group and against the best interests of dominated groups.[[1]]

[[2]]Here’s how it works Owen and Varist. You had one apple. The government promised you two more apples last budget. The EU thought that the government was promising too much and should pipe down on its generosity. So now the government is giving you one more apple instead of two. You had one apple. You could have ended up with three apples. Instead you end up with two. That’s a 100% increase for you in apples but a 50% decrease in government generosity. Of course you choose to highlight the decrease. See? Easy peasy.[[2]]