Feeling the pinch
Pilatus Bank Holdings are feeling the pinch. They are very unhappy at having to pay out for a caretaker to administer the bank for them and have tried to curb the expense by asking the courts to give them permission to withhold his fees.
Rachel Borg is an independent columnist based in the tourism industry
The court refused to allow this saying it would be prejudicial both to the bank itself, to its creditors and the financial sector. This prejudice would be greater than that potentially suffered by the applicant.
Finally,some consideration is portioned out to the financial sector. After having dragged and muddied Malta’s good reputation in the financial sector, these guys are just starting to get real about the implications and responsibilities that have been created in this wild enterprise called Pilatus bank. Did they think they had opened a biscuit store? The modern equivalent of Blackley’s in Republic Street?
Take your cake and eat it must have been their motto. They had no such problem with dishing out the SLAPPS though, even when they would cripple the defendant financially. But now that they risk their banking licence, as the financial threshold required for the licence may fall below the required level, they are squirming. Never mind that assurances are very likely to be in place so as not to trouble them with such inconveniences. Neither are they too pleased about the remuneration figure being paid to the caretaker, deemed to be excessive.
Perhaps one of our esteemed accountants can calculate the cost to the Maltese people, their livelihood, their country’s tax revenue, their reputation and their indignation at seeing what has gone on with impunity at Ta’ Xbiex. Then we can add the damage caused to Maria Efimova & Jonathan Ferris as persons who tried to shed some light on the way business was being conducted at the bank. Or the persecution of Daphne Caruana Galizia with total disregard for human rights and dignity and no respect for the work of a journalist.
Instead, its former chairman Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, calmly walked out of the bank in Ta’ Xbiex, in the late night, carrying those ugly brown suitcases once found in our grandparents’ garage or on the roof covered in dust. It certainly did not appear, by his silence before the Net journalist, that he was too concerned about the implications for Malta and the Maltese at that time, or for the validity of the bank itself.
Going back to the 60s, prior to the Islamic revolution, Iran was a country enjoying western lifestyle. Culture, fashion, education, investment were all on trend. The 60s and 70s witnessed a blooming, unwound Mideastern Iran, contrary to the country we know today. Could it be the nostalgia for the Iran of the past that drove Mr Hasheminejad to create the image of the life of princes for the schemers from Malta? Was he trying to escape the restrictions of his own country, whilst thinking he can rise above the law and that it does not apply to him?
The champagne socialists of Malta were ripe for the picking. A nice wedding invitation in Florence sealed the deal and the fantasy.
But in today’s culture, honest work and smart choices do not fit well with get rich quick plans.
In the 60s Malta, we were on the brink of a new era where we had to build a new economy. Maltese industry was being assisted with grants from Britain and diversification, such as with tourism was sought.
How pathetic that today our industry is so reliant on construction for the wealthy and temporary economic solutions for working class families in the way of rental apartments. Both of these new buildings come with a high price and cost to society and the environment and heritage. Should the effects of all the negative publicity on Malta, about money-laundering, failing institutions and the rising cost and deficiency associated with doing business in Malta lead to a fall in population, or if it were to fail to attract the consumers it needs, then we will find ourselves with a lot of empty hovels around the island and windy high-rise apartments waiting to topple. Not to mention, quite a few empty pockets.
Fortunately, for now, we again have a positive report from Moody’s with good forecasts for continued growth. But figures can be deceiving and it is not the job of any foreign investor service to consider the price paid by the country for that growth or what long term implications can be on the population or indeed, how it got there.
Pilatus has been a drain, a shame and a scourge on the country and it will continue to be so until reckoning beyond its own economic activities is made and restitution paid. How that can be done is a long and dark corner still to be turned. Malta and its citizens will not find peace and justice until then. That, in itself, will stain any economic success story the country is said to enjoy currently. That is not the way we have been taught or believed in. Ask any of our emigrants in Australia and America and they will tell you of the way they worked to earn their living and make something of themselves. It may have involved suitcases, but they held very different dreams inside.
p.s. Rachel Borg will be on leave of absence for a time. Thanks for your readership.