In the article ‘Vehicle owner has €5,461 in unpaid fines, and his licence is still renewed’, the subtitle, ‘Audit office urges Transport Malta to improve its controls’ gives the wrong impression that it is Transport Malta’s ‘controls’ that allowed the owner not to pay the dues.

The system is effective and as the NAO states, this particular case occurred after the owner agreed to repayment terms with Lesa. Transport Malta does not run the contravention system. The authority merely withholds licence renewals when there are dues. The report also affirms that it is not within Transport Malta’s remit to collect such fines. Quoting from page 107, Article 3 of S.L. 65.24, it states that “...in terms of article 564 of the Ordinance, the Authority shall be exempt from collecting such fines”.

Also quoting from the report: “The NAO office is satisfied that procedures and controls in relation to the accounting of revenue were in place and correctly followed by the TM and accordingly reflected in the Departmental Accounting System.  Furthermore, all relevant documentation at the TM was held in an organised manner and was made available for the audit upon request.” The NAO asked Lesa and Transport Malta to improve the system for cases when there are pending contraventions and a vehicle is transferred to another owner, garaged or scrapped. The authority will gladly follow these recommendations but to imply that they would somehow avoid this particular case is misleading.