Culture 2000 conflict of interest

I refer to Chris Gatt's letter on the Culture 2000 programme of the European Union (August 18).

L-Akkademja tal-Malti is not at this point concerned with whether Mr Gatt is engaged as a "cultural contact point" on a voluntary basis or not. The issue is not whether one "gets paid" or not, as we all know that there are those positions which, on their own value, reward holders in more ways than one. To our knowledge, very few people indeed had the privilege to know that Mr Gatt is Malta's "cultural contact point". Nor has there ever been, before now (once there have been straight calls for accountability and transparency) any publicity given to Culture 2000.

The issue is that Mr Gatt, as manager at St James Centre for Creativity, is in a position of conflict with his other post as contact point for Culture 2000. To avoid being regarded in this anomalous situation, Mr Gatt is stating now that the Culture 2000 programme for the current year (2003) was not handled by St James. This is in blatant contradiction to what the Department of Information (DOI) reported on July 18 this year.

L-Akkademja tal-Malti has already drawn public attention to the content of the press notice that specified, in the most unequivocal manner, that the Culture 2000 (Drama) project to which Malta is connected for 2003 involves "three centres and drama organisations". The DOI continued to mention the three organisations by name, viz., St James Cavalier in Malta, the Cyprus Theatre Organisation and Kneehigh Theatre Company in Cornwall, Britain.

When Mr Gatt writes that "it is incorrect to say that the Culture 2000 programme was handled by St James Cavalier" he is doing no less than misleading the public. Intelligent readers must have noticed how, in the past couple of weeks, the local press became the site for so many adverts proclaiming future Culture 2000 programmes.

All the publicity declared that the venue for all contacts is St James Cavalier, phone calls should be made to St James and all e-mail and other correspondence should be similarly addressed. Mr Gatt himself declared (Showtime, The Times, August 1) that he is based at St James Cavalier but he would have us believe that Culture 2000 was not (and is not) being handled by St James, even though the Department of Information singles out St James Cavalier as the relevant "drama institution" directly involved.

The issue that concerns L-Akkademja is that the recent publicity campaign regarding the EU Culture 2000 programme was completely inexistent for the first project involving Malta. Mr Gatt apparently chose to keep everything very close to his chest. The people selected for the theatrical "3 Islands Project" were handpicked at St James, although it has transpired, from interventions appearing in the press, that not even members of the board of directors at St James Cavalier were aware of what was happening.

L-Akkademja has also learned that St James Cavalier has provided thousands of liri for this project, at a time when theatrical priorities in Malta should point at a different direction. We think that the whole operation was conducted in a way that is totally unacceptable.

Conducting its own research, L-Akkademja tal-Malti has found out that every year, the Culture 2000 programme provides funding for European theatre projects with a range of themes including, for instance, theatre tours throughout Europe, social integration and democracy projects to raise public awareness on the issue of rights as well as the training for those in the theatre industry.

Culture 2000 also sees the translation of contemporary European drama as an important factor in the dissemination of European culture and therefore, 11 per cent of the appropriations for Culture 2000 are devoted to funding the translation of literary works, including plays.

That is of particular interest to L-Akkademja, playwrights and theatre organisations but to our knowledge, Mr Gatt, as the local "cultural contact point" never brought such information to public attention. What he has done is to involve only certain interest groups, conducting matters on behalf of St James, a public institution.

We should stress again that, according to the DOI, the Culture 2000 Theatre Project for 2003 involved St James Cavalier as a heavily interested party. All shows that the first project was piloted by Mr Gatt himself when he was functioning as general manager at the Cavalier, as the representative for Culture 2000 and also as a member of a theatre group that benefited directly from being selected for the drama project. It is this conflict of interest that L-Akkademja wants to neutralise. It is our responsibility (and not only our right as literary artists with close connections to playwrights) to demand transparency and public regard. It is to be remembered that according to the DOI, "the first phase" of the Culture 2000 Drama Project will cost Lm47,000, with half this amount coming from Culture 2000.

In his operations regarding the first-ever Culture 2000 project involving Malta, Mr Gatt has, by his own admission, limited information to the very few, conducting "one-on-one meetings" and "e-mail correspondence with interested parties". It is a fact that the bid that went through involves members of the drama group to which Mr Gatt belongs both as actor and director. It is the firm belief of L-Akkademja that this way of "operating culture" should change drastically and all monopolies should be dissolved, since they continue to perpetrate the patronage system and go against the government's pledge for the devolution of power.

Mr Gatt has asked who are the people forming the Drama Committee of L-Akkademja tal-Malti. He can rest assured that the committee is made up of key playwrights (members of the Akkademja) who have the full support of the central council which, in turn, is made up of some of the best academically and educationally qualified persons in the country, as can be confirmed from the official Government Gazette that announces the names of every elected council. L-Akkademja has also been monitoring very closely what appears in the press on the issue in order to be better informed and act accordingly in the best interest of its members and that of Maltese theatre in general.