The Transport Ministry said today that the fact that a Transport Malta employee was arrested and arraigned in court, charged with fraud clearly showed that this government did not tolerate abuse.

The ministry was reacting to yesterday's arraignments in connection with road works contracts, and comments in the evening by Labour leader Joseph Muscat.

A Transport Malta architect, a company director and his accounts clerk, and the owner of a scrap metal company owners were arraigned in connection with the case. The prosecution claimed that the architect and the company director pocketed some €500,000 after inflating invoices sent to Transport Malta.  The owner of the scrap metal company admitted to issuing false bills.

The ministry said the arraignments - which were about fraud and not corruption as the Labour leader claimed - also showed that there were effective processes in place to uncover abuse.

As long as Dr Muscat was not promising that criminals and those who abused from any system disappeared, the most that could be done by any administration was to ensure that there were systems to detect abuse and to ensure that justice was   done. This was the political test in such cases.

The system against abuse worked and was bearing fruit, the ministry said.