Transport Minister Aaron Farrugia would not say if the police are or will be investigating allegations of corruption related to the Marsa flyover project.

Earlier this month, Times of Malta reported how evidence of a potential corruption in the €40 million Marsa flyover contract has attracted the attention of EU anti-fraud prosecutors.

"The Auditor General is looking into the project and is going to do what needs to be done,” Farrugia said on Monday.

Pressed for an answer as to whether the police are also looking into the matter or will be running a parallel investigation, he said he prefers to see the institutions work and “when we will have the results… we take it from there.”

Farrugia, who was speaking at the opening of the Mriehel underpass, said that his ministry is facilitating the investigation process and offering its help.

He added that "from the media we know that the project is being investigated by EPPO (European Public Prosecutor's Office) and I am informed that the auditor General is also investigating it,” he said.

 

Traffic problem 

Asked about traffic problems - last week Prime Minister Robert abela said that he was not ‘satisfied’ with the traffic situation in Malta - Farrugia said that what the PM was referring to is the number of traffic accidents which are leading to traffic jams. When such accidents happen, police need to await before they are informed about the condition of any injured person/s before moving the cars involved.

He said that his ministry, in collaboration with Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri, and Justice Minister Jonathan Attard are working on a plan to make the system more efficient.

Additionally he said that during the summer the government had been working on a back to school plan with concerned authorities to seek facilitation of traffic. “We have to continue recognise that traffic is a challenge for the country” he said.

He said that free public transport is a measure in the right direction as an increase in the number of commuters since the system was introduced on 1 October has been noticed. He said that coming January more routes are going to be made available.

 

Metro Project

The minister said that the Metro project is still on the government’s agenda and is right now seeking to implement the best economic model that the country can adopt. 

"Now that we have the technical studies at hand, we also now know how much it is going to cost and what lines we can use, we are now exploring the economic model that our country can adopt"