Comments on: The bitter pill

By: Mario Debono

Mario Debono — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 23:36:52 +0000

Reverse auction is a form of tendering and well in line with EU rules Daphne. Most countries use it.

[Daphne – OK.]

By: Mario Debono

Mario Debono — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 23:19:29 +0000

Oh Bravo Daphne. Couldn’t agree with you more. But being in this business I am publicly on record ( see GRTU s reaction to the budget) to have mentioned what you have written about. You put it beautifully. But why now? Why not before? What you forgot to mention is that the big importers, who have enough fat to finance Government in the past, have had their credit lines from abroad squeezed because of the credit crunch. They didn’t make a fuss about this issue in the past because the fact that they used to give the Government so much credit left little room for the small fledgling importers to compete, because small importers cannot afford to have most of their working capital taken up by government tenders. But with dwindling credit lines from principals abroad, coupled with Govt inability to pay, they find that the profits they were making are being eaten away. But they are right, and I was quick to support them, because I believe in the rightness of their grievance.

Govt should do away with tendering altogether and go for reverse auction to give everyone the chance to compete. As for payments, they should be prompt at agreed timescales. This is important because the Government is in a dominant position here, and is blatantly breaking the Late Payments Directive of the EU. And yet Dar Malta says nothing about this. Are these guys awake or is the good life of the Brussels bars going to their heads?

The Govt excuse that funds have run out is no excuse. It doesn’t do this with its salaries, pensions and suchlike. As for the importers, please have the balls to take concrete action and stop supplying Government until they pay you. Not rocking the boat is not an option anymore is it?

The Magic Kiosk article is another case in point. Joe Pace, be gone, go silently into the night, haven’t you caused enough damage with your tasteless excuse for a birdcage on the front? If you have any grievances, take them up with Government ( Maybe you can ask the ex owners of Jumbo Lido to give you advice on how to get something back. Against all odds, they did. But that square should be an open space.

[Daphne – The government can’t give up issuing calls for tenders, Mario – there are rules about that, EU rules, remember? They’re there in the interests of transparency and fairness.]

By: Michael A. Vella

Michael A. Vella — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:55:28 +0000

@John Schembri – The ‘reserves’ backing the Maltese Lira were traded in for equivalent value in Euro just short on one year ago, remember? And those ‘reserves’ are now an integral part of the funds ‘managed’ by the European Central Bank.

But all that has nothing to do with Government income and expenditure. Government uses money in the same way that everyone else does, when the ‘readies’ run out, it must resort to borrowing. Government never had any claim on reserves held by the Malta Central Bank when the Malta Lira was in place.

As to payment delays by Health, and indeed by any other government department, it is not unknown for departments to over-run their budgeted expenditure for the year – this is particularly true where health is concerned, since accurate prediction of increasingly costly pharmaceutical requirements over a twelve month period is not quite possible.

Regarding griping importers, if things are that bad year on year, they should cater for that in their tender pricing…failing that, they should just concentrate on doing something else.

The only good customers are the ones that pay up when they should do so. Traders who deal with known bad payers only have themselves to blame when deals turn sour.

By: Tony Pace

Tony Pace — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:26:14 +0000

Joe Pace(no relation) can thank the good Lord that the Nats are basically non-confrontational ”geezers”! Frankly that guy should have been thrown out of that fish and chip monstrosity we have had to put up with for the last 30 years.
Remember the Bonello’s. Nice people ‘destroyed’ by the regime of the day. I am afraid we tend to forget too quickly what those bastards did to us all those years.
Happy New year Joe, what goes around comes around….

By: Mario Debono

Mario Debono — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 21:43:25 +0000

Mario Debono has just seen the panto and is still out at dinner. U missed me so much dear Mandy ?

I just don’t feel like typing my reply on my I fine that’s all !

By: Amanda Mallia

Amanda Mallia — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 20:16:46 +0000

Mario Debono’s silence on this one is deafening

By: Amanda Mallia

Amanda Mallia — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:52:29 +0000

Corinne – Or else it simply reflects their mentality, ie that of “fish and chip” tourists.

By: Corinne Vella

Corinne Vella — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:05:48 +0000

Marku: They couldn’t have been to too many places if that was the highlight of their holiday.

By: Marku

Marku — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:57:54 +0000

Regarding the Magic Kiosk story, what irks me almost as much as Joseph Pace’s gall are those occasional letters in the Times from someone who visited Malta from the U.K. or Canada and (so the story goes) “fell in love” with the Magic Kiosk. Apparently the kiosk was such an essential aspect of their holiday that they could not resist the urge to put pen to paper in order to prevent the place from being closed down.

By: John Schembri

John Schembri — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:22:39 +0000

Can someone illuminate me? Why can’t we use the Central Bank’s reserves which backed the old lira. Do we as a nation need ALL the reserves we had before joining the Eurozone? How are these reserves being managed?
Would it be a wise decision, or am I being simplistic?