The ADT has not summoned vehicles for emission testing since last year, a performance audit by the Auditor- General has found.

"The Emissions Alert Campaign" (EAC) was successful in creating public awareness, bringing about the enforcement and reducing vehicle emissions. Through SMSs, the public reported 30 percent of the public transport vehicles, as against 10 and four percent of commercial and private vehicles respectively.

"The potential of the campaign was not fully realised mainly because a large number of reported vehicles were not summoned for testing. Although the ADT applied a higher filtering threshold than that prescribed, its testing capacity was still unable to cope. The ADT has not summoned vehicles for emission testing since last year," the Auditor-General said.

In the audit, presented to Parliament, the Auditor-General noted that Malta’s vehicle emissions control schemes brought about some improvement in vehicle emissions compliance and the fine tuning of these schemes, through enhanced planning, implementation and enforcement, should contribute towards a more robust and sustainable vehicle emissions control framework.

Vehicles’ emissions were a major source of air pollution which impacted negatively on public health and the environment. The effects of vehicle emissions were further aggravated by Malta’s high vehicle density. Additionally, the average age of vehicles was much higher than the EU average, the Auditor-General said.