The inquiry into the escape of a tanker from Maltese waters after it was slapped with an arrest warrant “looks like a whitewash”, according to Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, who had called on the government to publish the full report.
“We will only be in a position to make a definitive assessment on that if we are given the whole report, including the evidence gathered. But we haven’t,” he said.
He was reacting to a story in The Sunday Times of Malta that reported on the conclusions of an inquiry into the escape of the MT Atlantik, which on April 30 sailed out of Maltese waters evading an arrest warrant.
Speed up this process and streamline some of the bureaucracy
The inquiry, led by former army commander Carmel Vassallo, found no fault with the authorities’ handling of the embarrassing incident, arguing that they were asked to intervene too late in the day.
The warrant was issued at around 3pm but the Valletta port was only informed at about 7.15pm, while the Armed Forces of Malta were asked to intercept the ship at 7.56pm, four minutes before it entered international waters.
Dr Azzopardi said there were a number of questions pending from the report’s conclusions which can only be answered when reviewing the entire process including the evidence given by the people interviewed by Brigadier Vassallo.
He said that the inquiry should have been ordered under the terms of the Inquiries Act, which ensures greater transparency.
“This government promised this would be the most accountable government we ever had. After the election it’s a completely different kettle of fish.
“How can it be that nobody is accountable?” he asked.
When it was put to him that there were several inquiries under previous Nationalist administrations whose conclusions failed to apportion responsibility, Dr Azzopardi argued that the people voted for greater standards at the last election and, in any case, many of these inquiries were carried out under the Inquiries Act.
Maritime lawyers who spoke to this newspaper did not delve into the merits of the inquiry’s legal basis.
Dr Larry Gauci, who specialises in shipping law, said generally speaking, there is room for greater coordination between the courts and the port authorities.
“That said, the system does function. We carry out many arrests each year without hitch. I personally had a vessel arrested at 4am in one particular incident and found the court ushers and the authorities to be very accommodating,” Dr Gauci said.
“Without trying to excuse this particular case,” he said, “one cannot build an assessment on one incident.”
He argued that while it is important for the authorities to be adequately resourced, in certain cases, when a captain decides to disobey orders, there was not much that can be done.
Maritime law lawyer Karl Grech Orr said the case was unfortunate but argued that something should be done to speed up the process with which the captain of the vessel is served with the warrant.
“In this case, it seems the captain was not served with the warrant so technically speaking, he did nothing wrong. This is the crux of the matter so we need so speed up this process and streamline some of the bureaucracy,” Dr Grech Orr said.