The Malta Communications Authority has reprimanded Maltapost for delivering mail which did not show any mark of payment, nor indicated who provided the postal service. The authority has ordered Maltapost to make itself identifiable as the provider of the service.

The authority said that since the beginning of this year, Maltapost has been delivering a substantial amount of postal articles that do not carry any stamp/postal mark indicating payment of postage and/or fees on a postal article. Furthermore, no other mark is visible indicating that the provision of postal service is actually being made by Maltapost.

Therefore, on 27 November, the MCA, as the regulator of postal services, issued a directive requiring Maltapost Plc, as the Universal Service Provider (USP), to ensure that an efficient service for the delivery of postal articles is in place, and that it is clearly identifiable as the provider of that service.

“Consequently, in addition to the demonstration of payment or arrangement of payment of postage on each postal article, the Authority considers that, on each postal article delivered by Maltapost, there must be a clear indication that explicitly identifies Maltapost as the provider of the postal service in question.

“In addition, ensuring that all postal articles delivered by Maltapost have a date and any other relevant information indicating when Maltapost acknowledged receiving the article for processing, clearly benefits users of Maltapost’s postal services (whether as senders or recipients of mail). Users will consequently be in a position to gauge whether Maltapost’s quality of service obligation is being guaranteed,” the authority said.

The authority added, it believed that the continuance of the current practice by Maltapost of not having, in all instances, a clear indication demonstrating that it is Maltapost which is providing the postal service, was detrimental to users of its services. The Authority considers that such a practice impairs users in pursuing their complaints, given that users will not, in all instances, be able to readily establish that it was Maltapost that provided the postal service in question.