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.