It’s not me. It’s my budgerigar

Mr Joe Mizzi, the PBS chairman who a few months ago resigned and then returned to his former post after a series of statements - including a laughable one from GP Frank Portelli - has revealed an interesting insight into who issues garnishee orders at State TV level.

To wit: Mizzi has said through their lawyer, that the garnishee order against Antonella Vassallo for pending payments to PBS was not issued by CEO Anton Attard, but by the board of directors.

Vassallo postponed the Antonello Venditti concert on the premise that Mintoff was being buried on the same day. Well, being journalists, we didn't really buy into that version, so we dug deeper and found out all about the garnishee orders - which, as it turned out, had an impact on Vassallo's sponsors for the concert.

Mizzi, as we all know, is a political appointee and serves as CEO of his own publishing company, so it would be safe to assume that he has some idea of how business works. Garnishee orders are taken by the people who run the company, not by the directors who are chosen by the shareholders to sit on the board.

Unless, of course, all Anton Attard does during the day is meet up with Where's Everybody 'directors' and others to have lunch.

It could of course be the case that PBS works in mysterious ways.

But the real story here is that the garnishee order was issued against the people who sponsored Antonella's concert - the Venditti concert.

Just in case you've all forgotten, Anton Attard is involved with concert organisers NNG productions, and from the very beginning, his role in this media company and his role as CEO of PBS was considered to be a serious conflict of interest. Nonetheless, the powers that be declared that this does not in fact constitute a conflict of interest... though the very idea of a conflict of interest seems to be alien to this country.

So the story that appeared on MaltaToday's online portal revealed that Anton Attard had issued a garnishee order against a potential competitor. This was shot down by Mizzi, but only after some consideration and time-wasting declared that Attard had nothing to do with the decision..

He, the Chairman, said that he would not answer over the phone, because the last time he did so, the ensuing conversation cost him his job.

Which beckons me to state:

'No, Mr Chairman, you lost your job because someone chose to film you in unusual and questionable circumstances and leak that film to the media. And I told you when we last met at PBS in a meeting which to be frank was a bloody waste of time, if it had been Tonio Pellegrini, Jason Micallef or Joe Mizzi it was still a story.  Just because you are a nice guy does not mean that such a story does not hold.'

But of course Dolores Cristina - the minister who could double up as Pontius Pilate - thinks differently, so the whole matter blew over after it was ascertained that Mr Mizzi is a nice guy and nice guys do not take responsibility.

Let's get on with PBS.

PBS has this amazing habit of defending its staff as if they were only answerable to the board of directors.  Sometimes Joe Mizzi et al forget that they are representatives of State TV - not NET or One TV, but State TV - and as such, transparency is not only a must, but a bloody obligation.

And one last things, when Anton Attard was asked if he was moving on to new pastures he angrily said that he could not understand why all the interest and he added that he if he was not quoted well he would sue big time.

Here we  go again.  It is not a crime to ask if the PBS CEO is going to leave or not.

Antonella Vassallo wasn't too happy with being in the news either. Mrs Vassallo has a long history of not been a prompt payer, but she was curious as to why we had picked on her, and why PBS failed to issue garnishee orders against others.

Why all this right before her concerts, too? She also asked.

She steered clear of pointing the finger at Anton Attard. But as we all know in the business, if Anton Attard had to reincarnate himself he would return as a slippery eel.

So we will take Joe Mizzi's words that Anton Attard had nothing to do with the garnishee order.  I for one believe every word.

Anton Attard will only be held accountable for positive achievements. When mistakes or errors of judgment are made, we can always blame someone else, I guess.

***

When sitting down with friends who share the same experiences it is abundantly clear that many are sad at the way things have turned out. They are all Nationalists who know why they can never vote Labour.  

They are in their late 50s, and they are angry at the level of indifference and incompetence at the very top. And when they mention the very top, they refer to Lawrence Gonzi. And just in case someone is thinking that these people have some grudge or agenda against Gonzi, this is not the case.

They simply did not know what a complete disaster he was.

"I was at Tal-Barrani, I know what it means to strike and get discriminated against.  I was transferred to Gozo, and I had no car at the time. But the people who carried out these abuses against me were promoted under this administration.  I have no faith in Labour but I will not be voting next time round."

Lawrence Gonzi believes - as some of his soft toy sycophants do - that he can convince these non-voters to return to the fold.

It will be increasingly difficult to do so because as the same person explained:

"Gonzi allowed himself to be surrounded by the same posse of blue-eyed boys and ignored public opinion whenever the public opposed a project such as the City Gate project, the public transport reform or his honoraria bid. Now he is going further he is trying to be something he is not. The co-habitation bill is one example: he does not believe in it and yet he comes forward and tries to introduce a half baked proposal."

***

Arriva and its shareholders should be chastised for turning our roads into a nightmare zone. The Chinese-made buses which are dominating our roads are breaking down in droves, leading to impenetrable traffic jams and a breakdown of our traffic system. 

Needless to say, the importer of these buses - who is also the same shareholder of Arriva and who sold the buses to Arriva - has dumped one of the worst buses in the world on our roads.

Both government and the opposition have treated Arriva with soft gloves until now, in fear of upsetting the Maltese shareholder. That government does not hit out at Arriva is understandable, considering how Manwel Delia (Austin Gatt's chief of secretariat and a PN candidate) is the architect of the changes in the routing system. But the Opposition need to lash out against this new transport system.

And the truth is that Arriva management are a veritable disaster - and very arrogant too, if you ask me.

Asked by MaltaToday to give a list of daily breakdowns, the Arriva spokesman said that this information was of a commercially-sensitive nature.

Now, if anyone can think of an appropriate way of replying to Arriva after that stupid colonial riposte, I would very much appreciate if they could email a draft reply to me.