Finance Minister Prof. Edward Scicluna’s position that the public sector needs to drop its dead wood was echoed by local Economist Karm Farrugia, who wrote to the Times of Malta on Thursday 12th September 2013.
In his letter, Farrugia expresses the opinion that this dead wood is undermining Malta’s competiveness, and went on to say that the dead wood mainly takes the form of unproductive personnel in the general service and in those bodies where the Government has complete or partial control of operations.
Farrugia also notes that the clearing process is necessarily a lengthy one because redundancies are anathema and retraining needs the understanding and cooperation of the unions and others, but points out that while the initial identification of the dead wood shouldn’t take more than a few months, it needs to be handled sensitively.
Dead wood and cobwebs
The Finance Minister is right in wanting to rid the public sector of its dead wood, probably the most potent factor that has driven Malta down to 41st place in global competitiveness ranking.
Personally, I feel that if Singapore manages second place, at least we should be above 30th. But, sadly, in Malta petty politics nearly always trumps economics.
Dead wood mainly takes the form of unproductive personnel in the general service and in those bodies where the Government has complete or partial control of operations. The clearing process is necessarily a lengthy one because redundancies are anathema and retraining needs the understanding and cooperation of the unions and others.
However, the initial identification of the dead wood shouldn’t take more than a few months to complete. It is its clearing that requires handling with sensitivity.
While on dead wood, the task team could also usefully look for cobwebs. By way of illustration: a current minor issue concerns the forthcoming election of directors of the Bank of Valletta in which the Government has considerable control. Besides requiring prospective candidates to secure the backing of 25,000 shares, the by-laws also insist on producing a certificate of the police conduct. Hilarious.
Karm Farrugia,
Madliena
-o-
Ħela u Għanqbut
Il-Ministru tal-Finanzi huwa korrett meta jgħid li jrid jeħles mill-ħela fis-settur pubbliku, li hija x’aktarx l-aktar fattur li wassal lil Malta fil-41 post fil-klassifikazzjoni tal-kompetittivita` globali.
Personalment nħoss li jekk Singapore jirnexxielha tikseb it-tieni post, missna għallinqas nilħqu aktar mit-30 post. Iżda sfortunatament f’Malta il-politika partiġġjana kważi dejjem tirbaħ fuq l-ekonomijja.
Il-ħela primarjament tieħu l-forma ta’ persunal mhux produttiv fis-servizz ġenerali, u f’dawk il-korpi fejn il-Gvern għandu kontroll komplet jew parzjali tal-operazzjonijiet. Il-proċess ta’ ikklerjar (tindif?) huwa neċessarjament wieħed twil minħabba li s-sensji huma anatema u ttaħriġ mill-ġdid jeħtieġ l-għarfien u l-kooperazzjoni tal-unions u oħrajn.
Madankollu, l-identifikazzjoni inizjali tal-ħela m’għandhiex tieħu aktar minn ftit xhur biex titlesta. Huwa l-ikklerjar (t-tindif) tagħha li jirrikjedi jkun trattat b’sensittivita`.
Filwaqt li fuq il-ħela, it-tijm inkarigat jista b’mod utli ukoll ifittex l-għanqbut. Bħala eżempju: hemm kwistjoni minuri attwali li tikkonċerna l-elezzjoni li jmiss tad-diretturi tal-Bank of Valletta li fiha l-Gvern għandu kontroll konsiderevoli. Minbarra li jeħtieġu kandidati prospettivi biex jiżguraw l-inforz ta’ 25,000 ishma, il-liġijiet lokali jinsistu wkoll fuq il-produzzjoni ta’ ċertifikat tal-kondotta tal-pulizija.
Tad-daħk.
Karm Farrugia,
Madliena
Letters to the Editor page pdf >>
– Thursday 12th September 2013