McGill’s chief executive Ralph Roberts says his firm pulled out because of a lack of information.

Scottish bus operator McGill’s has withdrawn its interest in running Malta’s public transport service after requests for “basic and fundamental” information remained unanswered.

Chief executive Ralph Roberts said it was the Maltese government’s “lack of openness” that led his company to pull out.

“We were not given the details on what we are expected to bid on and this alone is enough to prevent us from bidding,” he said when contacted yesterday.

He added that the company had been waiting for vital information for a number of weeks and it had reached a stage where it was “too late” to be able to prepare a bid by the March deadline.

“I have been waiting three weeks for that information and we got to the point where if we are going to put a robust submission together we have gone past the point of no return.

“There were too many holes, too many gaps in the information,” he said, adding there were more “questions than answers”.

His comments yesterday were a rather toned down version of those he was reported to have given over the weekend to Scottish newspaper The Sunday Herald , in which he was highly critical of Malta and its government.

‘It’s not the way to do negotiations’

The Herald quoted Mr Roberts saying that “the Maltese government’s way was not the way you do negotiations”, and that McGill’s had a “gut feeling that excessive State interference would prevent it running a profitable service”.

However, when contacted by Times of Malta, Mr Roberts said the interference quote was “an interpretation of what he had actually said” and since there was no State involvement in the running of public transport in Scotland it was “quite understandable” the journalist reached that conclusion.

The Herald also quoted Mr Roberts saying that the government did not say what the liabilities, assets, revenues or patronage figures of the currently nationalised bus service were.

He said McGill’s had been very serious about entering the Maltese market and had been looking forward to the challenge of providing a first-class service.

Reacting, the Transport Ministry said it was in the process of replying to the questions made by McGill’s and other companies which had expressed an interest in taking over the public transport service. It said the process was still open and would close as planned on April 7.

But according to Mr Roberts, it was now “too late” for this “basic and fundamental information”.

Mr Roberts, who was previously Arriva’s west of Scotland director, also told the Herald: “We heard stories that it was difficult to pin down the Maltese government to fulfil their promises. On the other hand they were very eager to get the franchise holders to deliver their contractual promises. It was a one-way street, in other words.”

McGill’s last month held a meeting with bus drivers to consider the situation in Malta.

When asked by this newspaper, Mr Roberts denied that his company had failed to reach agreement with its Maltese partners.

“It is not true that we failed to agree anything with our potential Maltese partners. I had an exploratory meeting with a group of ex-bus owners to gauge the interest in them being involved as subcontractors to McGill’s in the event we were successful.

There were too many holes, too many gaps in the information

“I believed it would be healthy to have local involvement at that level in order that there was a pride in the delivery of local bus services again,” he said.

Mr Roberts also denied that his company had failed to provide the €10 million guarantee being requested by Transport Malta.

“We did not fail to meet the criteria. We can provide that with no problem at all.

“However, there is no way we would ever tie up €10m of assets in other group companies over this timescale for a concession of this value. In short, it is far too excessive a requirement.”