Wrecking Sea Malta

Dr Alfred Sant is right in calling for an inquiry 'on the way the Nationalist government allowed the collapse of Sea Malta in the past years, which has opened the way for the privatisation. Predictably, the government instead of heeding this call reacted by saying that Dr Sant is seeking to undermine government's efforts to 'save' Sea Malta by selling it to Grimaldi Naples.

The Malta Independent (May 31) reported Minister Austin Gatt saying that "Sea Malta is more than bankrupt" because its liabilities exceed its assets by Lm5 million. So what price will the national line be sold at? For free, or will the PN government pay Grimaldi to take it, in the same way the PN government did with CMA-CGM when it paid CMA to take the Freeport?

Malta got a bad deal at the Freeport as government is using taxpayers' money to pay more on interest on the terminal than it is receiving from CMA-CGM over the 30-year period).

If Government is ready to subsidise Grimaldi (the Lm150,000 per annum public service obligation contract to operate to Reggio Calabria), why not agree a redundancy scheme with Sea Malta employees (as Government did with Malta Drydocks) and invest in Sea Malta to give it a new lease of life?

It is all the more necessary to save Sea Malta because our economy has become dependent on foreigners; for example, HSBC for banking, CMA-CGM for the Freeport, and now Grimaldi for essential short sea links between Malta and Italy (which is our gateway for exports especially by overland trailers). The PN government is turning us into a colony again, depriving us of the essential instruments and structures to promote our national interest.

 We need to be outward-looking and get out of our insular mindset and behaviour and participate actively in the global economy. But it is harmful to turn Malta into a tiny fiefdom of a few companies controlled from overseas and who consider their Malta operation as a very small part of their wider operations. They treat the Malta operation from the perspective of their own interest only and their interest does not always coincide with our national interest, which does not go away in this era of globalisation.

So far Government seems to be taking this position when it deals with issues having an impact on Air Malta, why not argue in the same way when it comes to deal with national strategic structures like banking and sea links?

Yes. We do need an inquiry "on the way the Nationalist government allowed the collapse of Sea Malta in the past years" which has opened the way for its privatisation. This inquiry should investigate the way Sea Malta was treated when Minister Gatt's friend, Marin Hili, was chairman of Freeport and Sea Malta's subsidiary Medfeeder operated a feeder service between Malta and Tyrrhenian and Adriatic ports.

Is it true that Mr Hili allowed the Freeport to wreck this service when Medfeeder's feeder services were essential to make the Freeport a good transhipment hub? Did Government lift a finger to make sure that Medfeeder was treated fairly?

Some burning questions

Is it true that Mr Hili kept Medfeeder's feeder ships waiting for long period (a week was usual) to get a berth, or Freeport would start working the feeder and then move it out to anchorage off Marsaxlokk and later bring the ship in again to continue discharging/loading? Did this not mean that the big shipping lines using Medfeeder to move boxes to/from Malta, were also hit by delays because Medfeeder's vessels took that much longer to perform the voyage?

A delay of a week at Freeport is 100% delay on a voyage that took seven days. This inquiry would investigate whether CMA CGM represented in Malta by the Hili family were treated very differently. Their ships were immediately berthed upon arrival, so that CMA-CGM had a better service because their own feeders were punctual.

There was so much friction between Freeport/Hili and Sea Malta that Medfeeder had to start legal action, only for Freeport to impose on Sea Malta/Medfeeder a penalty by making them pay up front (before the operation was performed) when all other customers had a minimum of 30 days' credit.

Mr Hili had his way despite Sea Malta complaining to the Nationalist government. After all, the Nationalist prime minister of the time said that Mr Hili should be honoured with a monument (which he more than got when the Freeport was given to CMA-CGM). All these delays made Medfeeder sustain losses until eventually Sea Malta sold Medfeeder to UFS (the big feeder operator working today with CMA-CGM on the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic route).

It is worth remembering how Motherwell Bridge (owned by Mr Hili) obtained contracts from Freeport in his time to supply new and refurbish existing gantry cranes at Freeport, as also the gift on a silver platter to Mr Hili of Malta Freeport to CMA-CGM last October. The PN government found all the money to reward Mr Hili, as also other friends, besides squandering money on Brindisi Terminal, Dar Malta in Brussels, but has found no money to help Maltese manufacturing industries by keeping Sea Malta running.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi asserted last August "the government felt that competition among shipping lines would ensure that Malta's shipping needs would continue to be met". This statement has been refuted by today's reality.

The belief that somehow the hidden hand of competition will meet Malta's needs is naïve. Shipping lines have abandoned Malta since the Freeport was privatised to CMA-CGM and shipping services have never been so poor in our country's economic history. Now another strangulation will occur with Grimaldi's absorption of Sea Malta.

evaristbartolo@hotmail.com