Some truths about PBS

Minister Austin Gatt's press conference on Public Broadcasting Services was no surprise and he was correct both in his analysis and decision.

PBS has been in trouble since its beginning when the organisation was burdened with the purchase of outdated and obsolete equipment from Telemalta. That was part of the price PBS had to pay to Telemalta to release PBS. The organisation also had to take a huge number of employees. In fact, when talks for the setting up of PBS were underway under Minister Michael Frendo (and I was involved), it was agreed that PBS did not need a staff complement larger than 80, a number which the union always contested. It kept insisting for a larger complement. In the end, PBS had to agree to take 219 employees!

Many of the measures Dr Gatt listed have been on the table since 1995. When I was appointed chief executive officer at PBS in June 1995, the station was shackled with debts and problems.

It is enough to mention, among other things, that no water, electricity and telephone bills had been paid; it was burdened with a huge staff; an unfair and warped system of promotions and a collective agreement that was all in favour of the workers but to the detriment of the company.

There was also a loan of Lm1.8 million taken in 1994 from Mid- Med Bank (later HSBC). The loan had been taken by PBS to buy new and modern equipment. However, it was spent on a futile exercise, Giochi senza frontiere (It's a knockout). It was an exercise from which both PBS and the nation were the gross losers. That loan is still a millstone around PBS's neck.

In November 1995, I had suggested that the government takes over the burden of the loan and PBS promised to pay it back within 10 years. That suggestion was not accepted and for good reason. It would have created a serious precedent. However, that loan has already cost PBS about Lm900,000 in interests and not a cent has been repaid. Dr Gatt's courageous decision to take over the loan, now with Bank of Valletta, is surely welcome.

Rumours of abuse at PBS were rife and I started to investigate a number. Having concluded my investigation just before I was removed from PBS, I submitted a report to the new board of directors. These were also mentioned in a commissioned report submitted to the prime minister of the time.

The chairman of PBS got the files, sealed them and sent them to Castille, the Office of the Prime Minister. The chairman appointed a lawyer to investigate. After a number of witnesses were heard, the investigation was stopped by the powers that be.

I always believed, and I am on record as repeatedly saying, that the collective agreement was one of the main reasons for PBS's troubles and had to be renegotiated. It does not make sense and, in 1996, with the help of three trusted executives, I had drafted a new collective agreement, convinced that that could help to save PBS.

The (original) collective agreement had wrong practices, exorbitant wages, allowances and overtime due to the fact that not even shifts were synchronised.

In 1995, there was also the unrealistic number of 26 executives and managers, a number which I had already reduced to 19 and aimed at lowering further to about 12. However, in late 1997, a further new collective agreement was signed, improving further the collective agreement and raising the number of executives and managers to 30 with an annual salary of about Lm10,000 each. PBS's total wage packet was already huge and it was increased to more than what PBS received through advertising.

It must be pointed out here that when I was in charge, licence fees were not, ipso facto, PBS's. Only a portion had been guarantee to it. All the fees started being passed over to PBS as from 1997, a move made by the Labour government.

As a direct result of the steps taken during my tenure, we registered a profit of Lm56,000. This was the first and only time PBS made a profit. It was a small profit indeed but, compared to the Lm400,000 loss made in the year before I took up my post there and the Lm240,000 loss made in the year after I left, the profit I registered was more than impressive. Of course, we had to take unpopular measures and more were then in the pipeline.

To add insult to injury, some of those who had been appointed to the top grades were incompetent, with shoes bigger than their feet. A large number of executives and managers could not even carry out a simple budget exercise and there were even executives who had no employees under their responsibility... indeed a case of many chiefs and no indians!

In the mid-1990s, PBS was no longer a monopoly and it was swimming in a sea of competition. Unless this was realised, PBS was bound to sink. This made the need for new practices, a new culture and a change of the collective agreement imperative.

I was unceremoniously removed for no reason from PBS in November 1996, a few days after the Labour government was elected to power, thus having the honour of being the first victim of Labour.

I lost my job and notwithstanding the fact that the adviser to the PM who had drafted a commissioned report on PBS had officially suggested in his report that I had proved myself and should be offered a job of equal responsibility, I was sent to register for employment.

Contrary to what is believed by some, in the months I spent at PBS as chief executive officer and in my years as board member I was never approached by, or was under any pressure from, any politician.

But I believe that many have to shoulder responsibility for the state of affairs at PBS, some politicians being no virgins. I remember, for example, in 1997 when a high-ranking politician ordered PBS not to continue to broadcast a programme on the EU. Being a contract, PBS was fined Lm8,000 by the courts.

I mention all this now as I am no longer bound by ethics and I am ready to mention more facts and instances of interference in PBS, with names if need be and if challenged.

I believe Dr Gatt's decision is now the only way forward for PBS. My concern is that an early and voluntary retirement scheme could see the best and hard working people at PBS leaving and much of the deadwood remaining at Guardamangia.