Bureaucratic elephantiasis at Malta Transport Authority

Recently my four-wheeled pride and joy was due for a VRT test. My garage mechanic told me it was in perfect condition but that it would surely fail the test. The reason for this, he told me, was that the engine number had become illegible because of superficial corrosion. For this I was to make an appointment with the Licensing Department to have the engine number put right.

This sounded simple enough but it wasn't. If ever there was mindless intrusive bureaucracy, then this was it. The first chapter of this sorry saga unfolded as follows, what is yet to come does not bear thinking about:

February 17: A telephone call to the Licensing Department to arrange an appointment was met with an ominous response: Your presence is required in Hall B at the Licensing Directorate to complete a form.

A form (requesting somebody to "Inspect and confirm the vehicle and engine number") was completed and stamped at the Licensing Department.

This form was to be presented at the police Vehicle Inspection Department. To do this meant a useless circuitous car journey down to Pietá and up Sa Maison hill again to the said department. Here nothing was done beyond stamping the form and issuing an appointment for 9 a.m. on February 28 (perversely, the day the car's annual licence ran out). It was mentioned that the car must be off the road after this date.

February 28, 9 a.m. - Second visit to Vehicle Inspection Department: Told to wait outside. Turn arrives. Brief 10-second peep under bonnet confirms smudged engine number. Told to wait outside again. Called in again, a second form completed and a "file" started. Photocopies of previous VRT tests and logbook (surely these details stored in the ADT's computer files) were needed for the file and a sworn affidavit had to be arranged at a notary to the effect that the engine had not been changed.

March 3 - Appointment with notary; obtain affidavit.

March 4 - Third visit to Vehicle Inspection Department to hand in photocopies and sworn affidavit. One document (which had not been specifically requested) was missing.

March 7 - Fourth visit to Vehicle Inspection Department to hand in missing document: "File" now apparently complete but there is further worrying speculation that a further document from the car agent may yet be needed. No information given as to what is to happen next - only dark Kafkaesque hints that it can take a "long time" (weeks? months?) for the "file" to be opened and then circulated to various departments, etc.

It is now three weeks later. Four working-day mornings (five, if the visit to a notary is added) have been wasted on what could have been settled by e-mail or telephone in five minutes.

The only certainty is that the car is now in limbo and cannot be used for an unknown length of time. By the time the car is on the road again, it will probably have cost a total of eight to 10 wasted working-day mornings. All this merely to put an obscured engine number right.

The purpose of the VRT is to ensure the roadworthiness of a motor vehicle. The engine number has no relevance to roadworthiness. This ridiculous bureaucratic procedure is unacceptable. It must be abolished or - if there are compelling reasons for retaining engine number as part of the VRT - it must be radically streamlined. The police/licensing department should be reasonable and allow the car owner to continue using the car, provided the engine number is restored within a certain stipulated period.

The total disregard for the waste of time inflicted on people by those responsible for perpetuating these useless bureaucratic rituals verges on the sadistic. In this case, the waste of time is compounded by depriving a legal owner of a vehicle of the use of his or her vehicle - in some cases making life very difficult or even resulting in a loss of income.

Having one's car taken off the road for such a trivial reason is unjust and the time wasted to get it back on the road is counterproductive. Sadly, this anomaly affects mostly the less well off among us - this includes pensioners whose mobility is seriously affected - since these people tend to own older cars.

Ironically, the government has recently removed holidays-in-lieu in an attempt to boost our country's productivity. Yet many civil service departments go on insisting on outdated, unnecessarily convoluted bureaucratic procedures, many of which are purposeless. These often require a number of visits to departments and long waiting times for which time-off from work is required.

In fact one hears only too often: "I have to take the morning off to..." when something needs to be settled at a government office. This simply does not make sense.