The government has engaged a private security company to reinforce inspections on the buses, checking drivers’ behaviour and whether passengers are paying their fares.

The company is providing about 10 people a day on morning and afternoon shifts for a period of two months, although this number is reviewed every week, a Transport Ministry spokeswoman said.

The measure was taken “to increase the effectiveness and the number of inspections being made, particularly on revenue control and driver behaviour”, she said.

The new recruits, taken on at the beginning of the month, have raised questions among regular inspectors employed by Malta Public Transport Services.

“We cannot understand what is going on,” one of the inspectors told Times of Malta. “The company is losing millions every month and the government has recruited more people, raising costs.”

“We were doing our duties very well and there was no need for these extra personnel,” another said.

Malta Public Transport currently employs 18 Service Standard Managers (SSMs) whose duties include on-route service inspections. Another nine bus station inspectors (BSIs) are based at bus termini.

Until the engagement of the security staff, inspectors used to perform their duties in pairs. However, the pairs now consist of one member of the original team and another from the private firm. The additional staff come from the firm Signal 8 Security.

The government said no tender was issued for the service but a call for quotations was requested from four different companies before the firm was selected.

Asked how much the contract costs, the spokeswoman declined to give figures. “The cost is based on market rates and is considered to be commercially sensitive,” she said.

According to the firm’s website, Signal 8 Security is owned by Joseph John Grech, better known as Jovan from Senglea.

In his profile he states that after joining the police force in 1983 he was “immediately earmarked to join the elite squad of anti-terrorism known as the SMU (Special Mobile Unit)”.

Malta Public Transport Services is currently operating the bus service at huge losses amounting to some €2.5 million a month. It is estimated that over a year the government company will register some €30 million in losses.

A Spanish company is expected to take over the service in March.