Ministry orders probe of school transport fees
Finance Minister Tonio Fenech has asked the Office for Fair Competition to investigate complaints of steep increases in school transport fees.
The Finance Ministry said Mr Fenech had noted complaints about transport costs made in the media over recent days.
Transport operators have argued that prices have had to rise because of higher diesel costs and a requirement that all schoolchildren use a seat belt, meaning that small children cannot share seats.
Some van owners said they had to actually fit seat belts.
Five months ago, the minister had ordered an inquiry into the cost of school uniforms, books, and stationery. The outcome is still pending.
Labour's education spokesman Evarist Bartolo said it was ridiculous to order an investigation now, when it was known for months that the cost of school transport would rise by at least 15 per cent.
This showed the government was insensitive to the financial difficulties faced by parents, he said.
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Adrian pace
Sep 28th 2008, 09:15
last year i was asked to pay Lm90 for a quarter from Pembroke to Naxxar for my daughter. That wa a an increase of Lm30 from the previous period, a 50% leap forward in price.
I phoned the Malta Tourism authority about this but they simply argued that this market had been liberalised and that they had no control over the price of transport.
Liberalised does not mean one can act according to his/her own whimc and charges what they wish. Liberalisation means introducing the element of competition not introducing a racket wherby two transport contractors are pre-selected and free to charge what they like.
Likewise what is the point in having an authority which is powerless in the face of rampant abuse? THe Malta Transport is evidentlt another deadweight department our taxpayer has to carry!!
danielzammit
Sep 28th 2008, 08:29
Use your own transport and it will be much cheaper my friend.
Joseph Ellis
Sep 27th 2008, 13:33
I wonder why it has to take the minister to order an investigation. Why does the Office of Fair Trading not act on its own initiative without the need of ministerial intervention ? The situation in the civil service and in the quangos such as the OFT is pathetic as it seems that without the intervention from above, very little gets done.
It must however not just be the civil servants' fault. Civil servants have been conditioned not to act out of line. The proposed Public Administration Act will do away with the figment of autonomy which the Interpretation Act had given heads of Department and sanction ministerial diktat. It seems that the Nationalists have forgotten the Mintoffian era and are moving to sanction what is de facto. In the process, they are doing away what was enacted by the very Nationalist administration in the early exuberant post-Mintiffian years. A positive vestige of the Fenech Adami era is alas being slowly and quietly reversed.
R.Vella
Sep 27th 2008, 12:07
Last year I was paying Lm65.00 each term for my 9 yr old son's school transport. Transport which picked up my son at 6.05AM. This meant, my son was at school at 7AM, an hour before school starts. This year, for the same service I was demanded a fee of Euro224 per term. The school transprt agreement is awarded to a particular garage, while another garage transport picks my son. I can see that 2 garages are profiting from this system.
The conditions are set by the transport companies - pick my son at an uncivil time, so that they have enough time to fit in another school trip plus increase the fee by 47.9%.
Some wise garage owners, tried to make us beleive, they did not know what the fee will be up to a couple of days before school started, hoping parents would not have enough time to organize themselves and find alternatives.