­­The Transport Ministry is acting in a very responsible manner to try and fix the rotten transport system, which was inherited from the previous administration. This ministry has gone for full disclosure of the state of play of our public transport. The public and readers of The Malta Independent do appreciate that in such a sensitive situation, a degree of prudence is required.

The Malta Independent sensationalist report entitled “Bendy buses inquiry report raises eyebrows”, published on Wednesday 8th January, raises a lot of malignant doubts which could have been easily verified by checking simple facts, also through public declarations, which the Minister himself repeatedly made.

The title of the report is already misleading when it gives the impression that the magisterial inquiry report was held on the three buses which caught fire. The magisterial inquiry was held on one bus – BUS 238, which caught fire in Marsa after it had been idle for two hours.

The Transport Ministry had no remit to order a magesterial inquiry on the other two cases. Therefore, with reference to the statement “The possibility of sabotage in the Mellieha and Xemxija cases has therefore not been ruled out,” the Ministry would like to make it clear that this statement is simply based on the reporter’s speculations based on a wrong assumption.

Moreover, the Government acted in a prudent manner when it sought the Attorney General’s advice on whether all the report or parts of the magesterial inquiry is published.

The Minister had engaged a number of technical experts to compile a separate report on the three incidents where bendy buses caught fire. The reasons why not all of the report was published, have already been made public quite a number of times, with your newspaper reporting this on the 3rd October, when it said that “The technical experts strongly recommended against the publication of the report because its technical explanations on the cause and effect can lead to malicious intentions."

In addition, even the fire investigation report commissioned by Arriva management, said that it is not to be made public, copied or handed over to anyone outside the company.

Another reference is being made to the editorial of the day after, entitled “On flying blind,” which wrongly declared that the public is being left in the dark.

The Minister has addressed an urgent press conference, the first morning after the signing of agreement with Arriva, which was held in the evening, during which he answered to all questions which were put to him and to Transport Malta Chairman, including those which were raised by The Malta Independent journalists.

After that, he gave interviews, had numerous media appearances and is and will remain open to any other queries which might arise in the future.

Government is committed to keep running the transport service smoothly, improving it where possible, until a new operator is chosen through an expression of interest. Though this will not be an easy task, the will and determination are there. Our aim is to improve the service for commuters without much fanfare, while giving the Maltese people the bus service they deserve.   

Roderick Vella

Chief of Staff

Ministry for Transport and Infrastructure