Then what was Marco Cremona doing in Labour’s igloo, lending his name to the Labour project by default?
An exchange on Facebook:
Antoine Vella: Marco you do not seem to have gone into the implications – environmental and economic – of a regasification plant. And then there are various other connected projects and works. I suggest you go into it carefully and in depth.
http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/impresa-e-territori/2013-01-12/porto-trieste-rigassificatore-081558.shtml?uuid=Abp25cJH
Marco Cremona: Antoine, thank you for the link but I do not have the time/energy/competence to go into the PL’s plan in detail….. unless somebody (the PN?) pays me handsomely to let go of all of my other work commitments and make it worth my while – in which case I will still report on my findings as an independent advisor and I will not let anybody will put words into my mouth (unlike MEPA and the other puppet regulators).
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Ever the eco-warrior, our Marco.
Dejjem jaghzaq fl-ilma, Marco Cremona.
Did I read that correctly? Does Cremona really say his competence is directly proportionate to the amount he’s paid?
Yep.
I wonder what the chamber has to say to that.
Especially when he blurted out on Dissett he couldn’t follow the financial argument. Too complicated.
He also thinks Labour’s failure to fulfil its promise would only be carried by the party, not the taxpayer. No wonder it’s complicated.
So you just cannot find the link between a handsome pay and competence! Let me shed some light.
Engineers are flexible creatures, they are trained to adapt to requirements. They have enough background such that – when required – they are able to fill gaps in their knowledge on their own.
This means that an engineer can deliver a solution to an arbitrary degree of accuracy. The accuracy depends on the pay, as the pay dictates the time and the time dictates the amount of research performed and hence the assumptions taken.
Does this mean that engineers deliver untrustworthy solutions? If the engineer does not have enough time/competence to provide a solution with the required level of accuracy then yes, but engineers are trained to quote the level of accuracy of their solution such that their arse is covered. Note the time-competence duality in this argument.
What Cremona is showing here is that he is gentleman enough to state up front that unless he is offered a handsome pay his report would be untrustworthy. He is saying that the amount of rigour required for such a job requires him to up his competence in the field which naturally would require substantial time/money.
@Jozef: As long as in the same report detailing the solution the engineer provides the constraints, assumptions taken and degree of accuracy of the solution, the chamber would have nothing to say about the engineer’s job.
‘….in which case I will still report on my findings as an independent advisor…’
It seems that Cremona can but Dr. Anne Fenech cannot.
This is the continuation of the conversation between me and Marco Cremona:
Antoine Vella: Marco, what do you mean you don’t have the time to go into the PL plan? you have endorsed it, for God’s sake. Are you telling me that you endorsed it without knowing anything about it?
Oh, and don’t tell me that you didn’t endorse it because the Labour media have reported it several times and there has been no denial from your end.
Marco Cremona: I did not endorse it…. if to the PL saying that it is ‘interesting’ (during the PL Business Breakfast and during Affari Taghna) equates to ‘endorsing’ then they must be living on another planet. Moreover, I have openly criticised the fact that they did not study the water sector before deciding on a water tariff. The recordings are publicly available (I know NET has a copy).”
Incidentally, it wasn’t just Labour who claimed Cremona endorsed the PL proposal. After the meeting under the igloo, The Malta Independent ran this story:
“Hydrologist Marco Cremona welcomes PL’s energy proposals.
Hailing the Labour proposal on energy, Ing. Cremona said that the people’s expectations have been met, however adding that he would rather steer away from going into the technical aspect of the project such as the costs incurred to build the boats to transport the gas for instance, since it wasn’t the area of his expertise.”
http://www.independent.com.mt/mobile/2013-01-11/news/hydrologist-marco-cremona-welcomes-pls-energy-proposals-674037760/
This sounds like an endorsement to me. Marco Cremona has every right to back Labour if he so feels but he should at least have the courage of stating his position openly instead of insisting that he’s “independent”.
I suppose handsome payments can make anyone find extra time and energy.
But competence? Well, as long as one’s not a puppet regulator, then that’s all right.
Thirty pieces of silver spurred someone to lead a mob to their goal on a Thursday night. Repeats do happen – and not occasionally, but quite frequently.
Screenshot of conversation
http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa475/A_V11/Facebookcoversation_zps0ddabfbf.jpg
After working for Seabank and defending their projects in front of the MEPA Board, I became more convinced that people like him (and Astrid) have a price. Their endorsement (or silence) has a price.
However, I would have never believed that he would have be so open about it himself, unless this was a Freudian slip.
[Daphne – I think he meant that he would have to be paid for his work and that he would still reach the same conclusions he wanted to. Fair enough – that’s the professional attitude. What’s unprofessional is the rest: allowing your personal and political bitterness to affect your judgement as a professional.]
You’re onto something there, P Shaw.
The opposition to the Seabank backed road deviation by Mellieha Holiday Centre may have translated into lucrative arrangements for some lobbyists.
“unless somebody (the PN?) pays me handsomely to let go of all of my other work commitments and make it worth my while”. What an ego.
[Daphne – Yes, he’s always struck me as awful. Really supercilious, patronising and arrogant. The sort of man a good-looking and self-confident woman would really have enjoyed putting firmly in his place…causing, of course, rage.]
Too late. Ever visited that ridiculous “water” multishmedia exhibition at European Parliament HQ in Brussels? He’s all over the place, Malta’s face of drawn-brow eco-concern, like some latter-day Turin shroud.
There are people who sit on the wall – waiting to see on which side to fall (after March 9)
Dante placed them very firmly in the Inferno. “Quelli che attendevano l’esito per schierarsi col vincitore” He was speaking of angels, not mere human mortals.
Thanks to the PM for reminding us of this yesterday:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-11/cyprus-fire-that-killed-eight-spread-from-power-station-to-munitions-store.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jul/29/european-debt-crisis-cyprus
I’m sorry for those couples who vea life-long loan to buy property at Marsaxlokk and Birzebbugia who will see the value of their home sink into the lowest levels because of Muscat’s capricious project which would bring a great security threat to the area.
Another axe-grinder. One thing these people have in common is that they are continually contradicting themselves so as to keep all options viable. Once all doors are closed, they start showing their true colours.
Why dont you take a look at how Cremona attacked in his Facebook page a The Malta Independent journalist for having genuinely reported Cremona stating that he welcomed Labour’s energy plans?
Is he shy to show that he lauded their plans?
Or didn’t he conveniently realise that participating in a political debate would make him susceptible to being quoted.
I guess he thinks his name shouldn’t make headlines (at least that what he wrote on FB).
You are either competent or not. How can a handsome payment, wherever it is coming from, revive your competence?
The problem in Malta is that a statement from a professional is often paraded and made to sound as though it is Gospel without anyone bothering to challenge whether the competency of that individual actually lies within that field.
In this specific matter (CCGT if I understand correctly) it will need to be someone with extensive overseas experience in this type of plant – in which, incidentally, the bulk of the required engineering knowhow is mechanical, electrical and structural rather than civil.
As this is the first of its kind in Malta it could not, therefore, have generated any relevant Maltese expertise.
It is not the first of its kind in Malta.
At Delimara there are 3 combined cycle plants of 37,37 and 36 MW commisioned in 1999, and yes there is ample Maltese expertise.