The mill-stone around Gozo’s neck

Last Sunday’s issue of sister paper Illum carried a revelatory interview with Mr Joe Grech, president of the Gozo Business Chamber. The interviewer – editor Julia Farrugia – stated that she had set off the road at 8am but yet did not manage to make it on time for the 11am interview. Mr Grech rightly pointed out that for Gozitans this was the norm.

Mr Grech rather diplomatically stated that Gozo Channel provides a reliable service but still, an investor would fret about inclement weather conditions and how his business would be affected. He then expressed his sorrow and disappointment that a conference on social tourism that was going to attract 150 participants to Gozo in November has been cancelled on the morrow of some incident in Cirkewwa. Mr Grech did not divulge the nature of the incident but for sure the organisers could hardly have been heartened had they had to wait some three quarters of an hour in the blazing sun in Cirkewwa for the ferry, as is usually the case.

How long is it going to take to call a spade a spade? The present state of affairs in cross-Channel transport is hardly conducive to encouraging business development in Gozo. No wonder the floating of the idea of a tunnel has been met with such enthusiasm, especially by the Gozitan commercial community which sees it as the panacea to all the island’s ills. Gozitan businessmen silently bear the brunt of the costs of the inefficiencies in the Channel crossing, thus putting them at a comparative disadvantage with their Maltese counterparts.

However, these inefficiencies are inhibiting the prospect of serious foreign direct investment on the island. An investor who is seeking an environment conducive for his business operations can hardly tolerate the travails which the Gozitan businessman has to endure on a day to day basis. Such a foreign investor would not be encouraged at all if, in order to get to an 11am appointment, he has to set off at 8am and this notwithstanding, he will not get there on time. Nor by the fact that his employees need to be in Mgarr at 5am to secure a crossing on the 6am ferry and invariably, would have to wait for a long time in a queue.

In fact, as Mr Grech has stated in his interview, Gozo has not seen any serious investment for ages. Recently, an Italian company (Bryvarc Ltd) folded, less than two years after its incorporation. In its short existence, it has run up hundreds of thousands of euro in liabilities to Malta Enterprise and to Bank of Valletta. Interestingly, in a recent court sitting, an ME official stated that the company’s business plan looked shaky from the very start. One can only surmise that its application was approved as the jobs situation in Gozo is so dire.

It is time to realise that Gozo Channel cannot remain the millstone around Gozo’s neck. The company runs a monopoly without any clear regulatory input in its operations (not that Maltese regulators have such a successful track-record). Whether people cross from one end to another on time or whether they have to queue for 45 minutes or more seems to be no one’s concern. Once there is no other way to cross over, you can only wait and pray that the management deems the situation critical enough to warrant the running a shuttle service (usually, this kicks in when the queue of cars extends beyond the RO plant). One must acknowledge that the short-sighted decision by the short-lived Labour government to remove the ramps from two of the ships that were being built in order to save some costs has hardly helped at all, but enough time has elapsed to remedy this stupid decision which has cost the economy extremely dear.

In the meanwhile, the company is being mollycoddled by the Government and the taxpayer. In the accounts for 2010, it transpires that the company got €4,506,319 by way of the Public Service Obligation, which has ensured that the company ran a profit of €2,474,272. Its 239 employees earned on average €24,429 in 2010 and it is no wonder that people kill to get employed with the company. The accounts also state that the company, rather surprisingly, is owed almost €6 million by third parties, up by almost €2 million from the previous year. This notwithstanding, the eight-man board headed by a 33 year lawyer with little if any experience in the running of such a company thought fit to vote itself an increase in its emoluments from €69,779 to €124,925.

This pampering comes at the expense at the well-being of the Gozitan economy. The sooner this is recognised, the better. There will always be a role to be played by Gozo Channel. However, the company has to be held to a higher standard in its operations to ensure more reliable and shorter crossing times. Government must also urgently look into the possibility of encouraging a catamaran service for passengers and cargo between Mġarr and the Grand Harbour to inject some urgently needed competition in the transport sector between the islands. If things persist as at present, the fate of an island will continue to be held to ransom by this company and the privileged few that benefit from it.