Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) has lost millions of euros. In one year alone, they registered losses of almost €2.9 million. Yet, they’re owed €7.5 million, which they’ve failed to recoup. They’ve given up completely on recovering almost €1 million, writing it off as “bad debt”. They’re close to giving up on recovering another €1.7 million of “doubtful debts”. Almost €4 million have been owed to PBS for over two years. And we, the taxpayers, are forking out another €6 million annually to keep the PBS incompetents (or worse) running the show.
Heading PBS is Labour’s own stooge, executive chairperson Mark Sammut. Despite the utter disaster at PBS, Sammut still earns €100,000 per year. But that’s not enough. He was paid an additional €26,000 in 2022 for attending just three PBS board meetings – that’s a staggering €8,666 per meeting. Sammut had never worked in broadcasting, but Prime Minister Robert Abela handpicked him to run PBS.
The National Audit Office attempted to audit PBS. The mess was so massive that the NAO in its report declared up front that their job was rendered impossible. Sammut’s PBS didn’t want the NAO to find out what they were up to. They failed to provide documentation the NAO requested. “This hampered the scope of the audit as necessary verifications could not be executed,” the NAO commented. “It transpired that such information was not formally documented.”
Of course not. Why would Sammut provide information showing that although PBS was paid €6,048,800 by the taxpayer in one year alone, it still accumulated €2,878,987 in losses? That’s almost €3 million in debts in just one year. What’s even more truth is that over €2 million were spent on “administration” alone.
What little the NAO managed to find out about PBS was nothing short of shocking.
Sammut took decisions with just two of his staff to charge different clients different rates for advertising on TVM and other PBS stations. Sometimes, he decided to drastically reduce the price for certain clients without explanation. At other times, he provided “free adverts between 19.45 and 20.45, the peak time of the main news bulletin”. His decisions were not minuted or documented anywhere.
PBS is nothing more than Labour’s Pravda
The NAO couldn’t figure out why some clients were given free airtime or “drastically reduced” rates. In fact, the NAO “could not confirm what rates were charged to clients” at all.
PBS was making huge losses. It was spending over €2 million on administration. It was paying Sammut over €100,000 per year and almost €9,000 for each board meeting. And, at the same time, it was giving away prime-time advertising for free to “certain clients”.
Those rates were apparently “negotiated between PBS and the client on an ad-hoc basis”. Even worse, “such negotiations were not backed up by any documentation”. The rates “varied widely on a case-by-case basis depending on the client”, the NAO noted.
“Discounted rates were offered based on the respective client’s level of commitment,” the NAO report read. Level of commitment to whom? To the Labour Party? To the minister? To Abela?
These are the suspicious deals struck by Sammut at PBS. Sammut gets to decide whether you pay the highest possible rates for advertising on TVM or whether you get prime-time slots completely free of charge. That’s not the only scam at PBS.
“Advertising and promotion on behalf of ministries and government departments and entities were subject to a 15 per cent commission charge when booked through a presenter or agency,” the NAO noted. PBS was getting over €6 million in taxpayers’ money but was also getting more taxpayers’ money through government advertising, and then imposed an additional 15 per cent commission charge whenever ministers advertised on TVM. Even the NAO was shocked. “Government publicity is financed by state funds and should be used responsibly…(and) is not expected to be subject to any unnecessary add-on charges,” the NAO chastised.
There was more. Besides deciding who pays the full rate and who gets “drastically reduced” rates, Sammut also decides who actually pays his dues and who doesn’t.
At the time of the NAO audit, PBS was owed €7.5 million. Over €1.8 million had been due for over five years and still not recovered. That’s hardly surprising. When the NAO enquired as to how Sammut’s PBS was chasing those debts, it found out that “debt chasing was done verbally through phone calls”. Imagine that call. “Hello, this is PBS. Do you mind paying us the €7.5 million you owe us please? Remember you’ve owed us €1.8 million for over five years now. Don’t you think it’s time you started paying something?”
This is the level of mediocrity and incompetence (if not worse) that we’re paying over €6 million per year for. That’s the chicanery we’re paying Sammut over €120,000 annually for.
To confirm how pathetically inept he is, the NAO discovered that PBS hasn’t submitted its mandatory annual report certified by a financial expert for years. The Public Service Obligation (PSO) agreement stipulates that PBS must present a report to the government within six months of each financial year end. In April 2023, when the audit was conducted, the report for September 2020 hadn’t even been submitted. Neither were the reports for the following years that were also well overdue.
If PBS were providing quality journalism reflecting a plurality of opinion and providing divergent voices equal exposure, we’d be willing to overlook a few millions here and there. But PBS is nothing more than Labour’s Pravda. It stifles dissenting voices. It even censored the pope when he condemned corruption. When even Anġlu Farrugia has to order PBS to correct its disinformation on Bernard Grech, we’ve reached the pits. PBS reported that Grech said the exact opposite of what he actually said – a truly Orwellian two plus two equals five.
We’re paying through the nose for our own brainwashing for enriching Sammut and voting Labour.