McGill’s on the Maltese government: “They have a very different (non-European) culture and it wasn’t sitting well with us.”
The Scottish bus company McGill’s has pulled out of its plans to go after the Malta bus service contract, citing “excessive interference” from the Maltese government.
And of course, here in Malta we had to get the news from a Scottish newspaper, the Herald. Our government, in all of its much-vaunted diaphanous transparency, sought to keep the information from us, thinking that perhaps the internet is a bit of fiction and nobody with any connection to Malta reads Scottish newspapers.
Joe Mizzi, the retired office dogsbody who is now cabinet minister for transport, probably thought he needn’t tell us. Or perhaps, given that he is barely articulate, he has spent the last 24 hours looking up the right words in his Kalepin.
Here’s a new prayer: may God deliver us from the hopelessly incompetent, inept and downright irresponsible, and those who vote for them and may therefore be described in the same way.
Perhaps Miss Nicola Abela Garrett would now like to emerge from some suitable crowd and call Joe Mizzi a f**king w**ker, but I have the strangest feeling that’s not going to happen any time soon. Somebody like that would sooner shout the insult at McGill’s for refusing to cooperate with the government she so very cleverly helped vote in. At least there is hope for somebody like that – she might grow up. But what to say of the 40-year-olds and 50-year-olds with the same mentality?
I quote the report in Times of Malta:
Chief executive Ralph Roberts said the company took the decision because of lack of openness by the Maltese government.
He also said McGill’s had a “gut feeling” that excessive state interference would prevent it running a profitable service.
McGill’s mistake, having insufficient or inadequate intelligence on the Labour Party and its modus operandi in Opposition and in government, was to think that what happened with Arriva was Arriva’s fault and that they could do better. With a short history of stepping in where Arriva has pulled out because of falling profits, McGill’s might have thought this was just another such scenario.
Except that it wasn’t. And McGill’s, in its increasingly disturbing dealings with the Maltese government, might have come to the full-dawning realisation that yes, Arriva’s Malta operation might really have been brought down by systematic and coordinated hostility, and that the people who were saying that were not mere politically-motivated conspiracy theorists.
I really don’t blame McGill’s for not believing this before it had direct experience of dealing with the Labour government. Some things you just don’t believe can happen in an EU member state, in a westernised democracy. But dealing with Labour is like dealing with a dictatorial regime in the Middle East – it’s the same mindset, the same mentality, the same outlook, the same way of thinking and operating.
Times of Malta again, on what McGill’s said:
“We decided last week that we’re not going to pursue [the bid] any further. There were more questions than answers. I submitted about 30 questions where I needed further information which they have not provided.
“Their first option was to have someone take over an effectively nationalised service and assume the assets and liabilities.
“While they made that clear up front, they didn’t say what this amounted to, so we had no idea what the liabilities were, what the assets were, what the revenue was, or the patronage numbers.
“I have been waiting three weeks for that [information] and we got to the point where if we are going to put a robust submission together we have gone past the point of no return. There were too many holes, too may gaps in the information.
“We’re businessmen so we’re analytical, but we operate on gut and it just didn’t feel right. I’ve been involved in negotiations all over Europe, and the Maltese government’s way is not the way you do negotiations.“
That’s because the Maltese government’s way is NOT European. It is most definitely autocratic, which is why it identifies so closely with the way of doing things in Azerbaijan, China, Moscow, North Africa (before the fall) and the Gulf States. What McGill’s is saying here, quite clearly, is that the Maltese government is not European in its approach and dealings, though he stops short of saying what it is.
McGill’s quoted in Times of Malta again:
“[Governments should] get all the information that’s needed out as soon as possible, to allow companies that are bidding to get as much time as possible to get something together before the March 24 deadline. This is not the way they are working; they have a very different culture and it wasn’t sitting well with us.
“We heard stories that it was difficult to pin down the Maltese government to fulfil their promises. On the other hand they were very eager to get the franchise-holders to deliver their contractual promises. It was a one-way street, in other words.”
You will be able to see the inherent problem in all of this, and it’s not necessarily what’s going to be done about the bus service. The Maltese government is the Maltese government is the Maltese government: it is only we down here on the ground who distinguish quite clearly between a Labour government and a Nationalist government. To everyone else, it’s just the Maltese government, with Malta getting a lousy name once more and years that must be spent cleaning up the mess afterwards.
35 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Mela ejja! On behalf of 150,000 or so addicts to this site- Welcome back.
Welcome back. I have become so addicted to this site that I get shock shivers when there is no commentary for some days. I am selfish enough to think that DCG is there always and forget she has every right to a few days off.
Amen.
Reading this website is a morning-must, even before preparing and drinking coffee.
And Arnold Cassola said that Simon Busuttil was way out when he said that Malta is becoming like North Korea ……..
Maybe he says that since the Greens are on the extreme left of the political spectrum.
Interesting comment.
There is something that’s always so off-putting about these Greens.
Sometimes they get to the point where on a new round they’re making the right sounds and then one comment is enough to throw reflection on the skew of it all and send them right back to go again, in my mind.
He’s right. Simon Busuttil should have used Mintoffian Malta as his simile, not North Korea.
The Labour wits were out in force, correctly reminding him that there is no Leader of the Opposition in North Korea.
Simon Busuttil needs to FIRE ALL HIS ADVISORS. They are slow-witted and keep making him put his foot in his mouth.
If McGill followed what this government did to Arriva, it would have saved them this embarrassment.
[Daphne – This is not McGill’s ’embarrassment’, but the government of Malta’s.]
“At that kind of 1:1 gearing, you’re looking at a very, very expensive business to run… you ask yourself why Transport Malta should have set such a high bar in the first place.” (MaltaToday)
Can Transport Malta please explain and tell us why?
Perhaps the Maltese government wanted McGill’s to pull out.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/business/company-news/scots-firm-scraps-bid-to-run-buses-after-maltese-fail-to-come-up-with-answers.23500643
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140224/local/mcgill-drops-plans-to-bid-for-malta-bus-service.508118
And dear old Eddy Privitera’s at it again in the comments section. It’s amazing what one man can do with so much time to waste and an inverse amount of intelligence.
Entirely predictable outcome. This is just the start. Arriva’s experience with political treachery is plain for any potential foreign investor to see, and not just in the transportation sector.
In less than a year, this Government managed to tarnish Malta’s reputation, built with sacrifice and coherence over 26 years. It also managed to shame us as Maltese in the eyes of the international community.
I dread the day when Malta, under this leadership, will take over the EU presidency. Imagining the shame it will bring on our country, is unbearable.
The sabotage of Arriva served a dual purpose. It opened the way for the Labour Party’s (as distinct from government) chosen operator to take over and it guaranteed that no serious competitor would get in their way.
When Muscat says that this government is pro-business we all know what that really means: not pro-business so much as pro- certain businesses.
Malta is seen not as a country but as a corporation in which the Labour Party has a share and absolute controlling interest. This is what McGill’s is saying, in essence.
I guess they’ll try to pin this on the PN as well, ghax dawk xewwxu lil McGill kontra Malta.
Sniping at Arriva from the opposition benches and then getting them to give up on Malta was the easy bit. But now the PL is in government and it has to deal with the fallout of its actions. Talk about unintended consequences.
The elves are already at work justifying McGill’s problems by blaming them on the mess left by Austin Gatt and GonziPN, who haven’t been in government for a year now and never dealt with McGill’s (which is what the point the company is talking about). Morons, the whole lot of them.
Get ready for a new provider for the Gozo Bus service – George iz-Zombor. Together with Anton is-Xelina, he is the person to go to for an appointment with Minister Refalo.
At long last Daphne. We were feeling orphaned believe me.
The Labour government is again in the public transportation business. MLP did everthing to destroy Arriva’s image and the people voted for a change as they foolishly thought that Muscat would do better.
Now the people have to foot the bill which is going to run into millions every year. Vera poplu bravu.
Governmental interference? How dare they! This is a government of high flying experts that surrounds itself with a crown of intellectual pearls – the latest one being Grace Borg (a CD shop owner and a guru in the international music industry).
And the Cruella nails
Ms Abela Garrett won’t emerge and call Joe Mizzi a f**king w**ker, as she is comfortably studying and working in London.
I think people are making a big palaver over the remarks of a pissed off student who was having to wait 2 hours for a bus. And hey, she said it to Austin Gatt not to Prime Minister Gonzi or Mario Demarco.
Arriva is a transport multinational (that says it all) which came to a country lacking the most basic transport infrastructure.
Austin Gatt (and whatever he symbolised) and the shoddy routes polluted Arriva’s work making the company easy prey for Labour.
Now, one has to touch wood and hope that Malta’s not in for one other major disaster.
It is now pretty obvious that a decent service can only materialize through a hike in fares or increased subsidy. If anyone stood a chance of turning things round, under improved contractual conditions, it was Arriva. Instead the government beat it into submission. Looking forward to a nationalized transport system and a rush for cushy jobs tainted in red. Truly, Transport Malta has missed the bus.
Maltatoday actually quote McGill’s CEO saying that “his company was not going to be another Arriva”.
http://maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/We-re-not-going-to-be-another-Arriva-says-Scottish-CEO-20140225
Some time ago I had likened McGill’s to a flock of scavenging vultures eager to profit from the dishonest treatment Labour meted out to Arriva.
I would now say that the carrion they have been offered is by far more putrid and indigestible than they themselves had originally calculated.
It seems that we are to be saddled with a ‘nationalised’ (read: inefficient, untrustworthy, and extremely costly) public transport system – all to spite the former government’s plans to have a decent and modernised one through Arriva.
The Nationalist Party has estimated that an annual 50 million euro government subsidy would be required to keep it in operation – barring the possibility of substantial fare increases to avoid, or at least minimise, the foreseen losses.
How this possibility will be received by the Labour faithful is, of course, difficult to conceive.
I believe this episode reflects on Joe Mizzi’s inability and ineptitude in negotiation.
I shudder at the thought that he is also the chief negotiator with oil companies (he is responsible for oil exploration). I wonder with which third world country ridden with paranoid ministers they must be comparing us to after they meet him?
McGill’s discovered in a few weeks what has eluded the vast majority of Maltese voters for years.
That is that you do not do business with a Labour government in Malta.
I wonder whether they reached their conclusions because of, or in spite of, the advice they obtained from Mugliett.
No Arriva, no McGill’s and banks won’t lend the Maltese consortium any money. Therefore taxpayers like me are funding public transport which most of us never use. At least I will save the cost of a packet of fags a week on my electricity bill. That’s roughly all it works out at. Do the maths.
It is obvious that someone has already been earmarked for the job.
Why does a Scottish company like McGill’s get the full grasp of the Maltese government when half of the Maltese population just can’t?
They have been dealing with this government for only a couple of months but we who live here are so oblivious to reality.