Arriba, Arriba
The Transport Minister
The Transport Malta chief
The Ryanair plane
A member of my international worldwide network of spies tells me that Transport Minister Joe Mizzi and Transport Malta chief James Piscopo were on the Ryanair flight to Madrid this morning, with two men he didn’t recognise.
UPDATED AT 8.30AM TODAY: And bingo, this morning The Malta Independent reports that they’re in Spain to discuss a bid for the operation of public buses. How sad, putting their loss of leverage on display like that – showing their willingness to go to the potential bidder instead of the potential bidder coming knocking at their door.
Instead of being chased by potential operators, they’ve got their backs to the wall – and are so desperate that they’re not worried about loss of negotiating power by showing it – and are chasing potential operators themselves.
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So, is the bus contract going to be given to the municipal bus company of Leon? That will please the Maltese consortium who must have felt it was theirs to take.
The onky reason they flew with the cattle carrier is because Air Malta and Iberia do not fly between the two countries and you can only get on Ryanair and Vueling, both low cost carriers. Not because they are committed socialists.
Since when was the Labour Party ever socialist? It was modelled on Soviet socialism which was nothing but extreme capitalism where a small nucleus lived in sheer wealth and the rest in abject misery. The Labour Party has always been the working class’ biggest enemy.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-06-11/news/public-transport-joe-mizzi-in-spain-for-negotiations-with-shortlisted-bidder-5426675713/
How embarrassing and desperate! This morning’s Independent reports that Joe Mizzi is in Spain to negotiate with one of the bidders for the bus service.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-06-11/news/public-transport-joe-mizzi-in-spain-for-negotiations-with-shortlisted-bidder-5426675713/
Just imagine how desperate – instead of asking the bidder to come to Malta they are going there – you can just imagine how desperate things have become in this fiasco Joe Mizzi masterminded. Basta hliesna mill-Arriva!
Alla jbierek the complaints against the bus service disappeared on the 9th of March – a well orchestrated hate campaign against a foreign operator (who admittedly got off to a very bad start) forcing them out of the country at great financial loss.
Now our Transport chiefs are off to beg for another operator’s involvement.
My thoughts exactly. Our ‘smell the coffee’ PL government goes to Spain to beg an operator to come to Malta.
It seems like this government lives by the motto that information is power and it seems to be gathering it on all fronts. Pity the title of the article does not reflect what is really worrying in this bit of news!
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-06-11/news/public-transport-joe-mizzi-in-spain-for-negotiations-with-shortlisted-bidder-5426675713/
This same group was on Air Malta flight to Rome on Sunday June 1st @ 8.55 am. It looks like when he went shopping to Rome for bidders, Mizzi failed. So now he is turning to Spain.
Begging…same as under Mintoff’s times!
Once again Times of Malta missed this.
What’s Piscopo’s background apart having been head executive of the Labour Party?
[Daphne – Air Malta]
Mela jistghu jghidu li bghatew taht il-PN!
Ahjar jghidu li taghna lkoll verament kienet taht il-PN, ghax nixtieq inkun naf min verament ‘bata’ f’dawn l-ahhar snin.
Ghax il-kelma ‘bata’ tintuza pjuttost liberament
Are we saying that there is only one company on the shortlist? Brilliant negotiating strategies, Joe!
It’s Arriva to Autobuses Urbanos de León who are owned by ALSA (Spanish transport company) who are in turn owned by National Express of Britain.
So, it’s going to be another international operator by the looks of whilst the local boys don’t seem to get a look in.
It’s tough to take on the big boys, but never in a million years should one have a single company on a short list. It’s absurd and shows how bloody stupid and clueless these people are.
Spain has just started to turn the corner. I hope they do not get drawn into this, although I suspect that they are not half as gullible as those French/British were.
So the government is about to award a lucrative tender to one of the 16 bidders that Minister Mizzi had proudly announced with much fanfare.
When one is in such a strong position, the obvious way to do business is to invite THEM to come over and discuss and not going to them. This can weaken ones negotiating conditions besides showing lack of business respect to the other competing firms.
But then what do you expect from a Minister who up to a few months ago was an office boy whose main job was doing photocopies for the firm he worked for.
Can somebody shed light on the procurement procedure in this case? Is there an adjudicating committee? Why is the minister involving himself directly?
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-06-10/news/arriva-sets-highest-passenger-records-since-1990-5421793280/
Passengers increased by a remarkable 16% in 2013 over the previous year. 2013 was Arriva’s last full year. Yet thousands of complaints were made against Arriva’s.
If there was a sharp increase in passengers then certainly passengers must have been satisfied with the service. How can the avalanche of complaints be explained?
The complaints were orchestrated for commercial and political reasons. The Times obliged and gave them a helping hand, pushing an agenda which is not in the public interest.
Next year over 40 million euros of taxpayer money will be used to subsidise public transport – a subsidy which would have been avoided had gvernment retained Arriva.
Maltese private interests and myopic political considerations prevailed over the public interest.
Thank you, The Times. Thank you PL, for wasting taxpayer money.
On June 3rd I was on a flight to Madrid and when I sat down and settled in playing Candy Crush till we left I happened to look out of the window (seat F – not the side that people board) and there were: 3 armed soldiers, head of airport security, 2 policemen and 3 or 4 Rapid Intervention Unit guys in black with machine guns and the lot.
I thought we had a prisoner on board but then I thought, why on the otherside of the plane?
I decided to wait to see who the police were waiting for in Madrid because when I got to the luggage area there were 2 policemen with some guys waiting for the suitcases.
These 2 Maltese were rushed out with suitcases that had black clingfilm wrapped around them, they walked very fast to some cars and sped off. Looked very much like a scene from a Bond movie.
The Maltese men were called about 3 or 4 times before we started boarding and I’m pretty certain that their surnames were Saliba & Abela and one of them had a first name of Carmel.
PS: I have a photo of the two men coming out of arrivals.
[Daphne – Please send it to [email protected]]
Joe Mizzi thinks he is a second Mintoff, but lacks any of his negotiating skills or clout.
If this is the way he negotiates with oil companies, then it is no wonder that they have the upper hand over the government and keep taking Malta for a ride on oil exploration matters.
Look at what is happening in the case of the Hagar Qim well (under Maltese licence) which is being drilled right now south of Malta.
Read this comment from a geologist:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140609/local/geologist-not-holding-his-breath-as-oil-drilling-starts.522633
Back to the good old Mintoff days, idur bis-sasla f’idu.
a bunch of incompetent fools and idiots.
Ara James, dawn tar Ryanair qieghdin idoqqu il kurunetta ghax waslu on time. Din nibdew naghmluha ghal Tal-linja, ntuh trumbetta lix-xufier……..l
I can see why the minister is in a desperate position. The bus service is costing us at least 80 thousand euros per day. This is using the government’s own figure of 2.5 million euros per month losses.
Thirty million euros per year. That is how much the elimination of Arriva from Malta is costing us.
And the Maltese bidders are suggesting a subsidy of at least 40 million euros.
Well done Joe Mizzi.
How right you are, Daphne!
Thank you for keeping us informed.