Momentum Chairperson Arnold Cassola penned a letter to Standards Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi requesting an investigation on alleged breach of ethics by Transport Minister Chris Bonett over a promotional video which he said publicised the recently announced transport initiatives.

Cassola on Monday said he had sent a letter to Azzopardi on Friday, referring to last week's initiatives that the Ministry for Transport had announced for 400 new public transport routes.

"Undoubtedly, this is a positive and important initiative to encourage drivers to leave their private cars at home. However, even in such a positive initiative, members of the government feel the need to assert their arrogance," Cassola said.

He said that in fact, the Ministry for Transport launched a promotional video to publicise this development. Other sponsors of the video included Transport Malta and Malta Public Transport, Cassola said.

Cassola continued that at the time of writing, this video is neither on the Ministry's website, nor on Transport Malta's website, and not even on the Malta Public Transport website.

"Instead of being published on the Ministry's official channels, in line with the rules established by Commissioner Hyzler and repeatedly reiterated by yourself (Azzopardi), the video was shared directly on Minister Chris Bonett's personal Facebook page," Cassola said.

He said that apart from breaching the rules, this "is nothing short of an act of defiance by the said Minister towards the authority of the Standards Commissioner."

Cassola urged the Commissioner to investigate this breach of ethics.

The video in question is the following: https://www.facebook.com/chrisbonettmt/videos/653994237556574/