Over 13,000 passengers and 600 vehicles were carried by the Gozo ferries last year but were not recorded in the electronic ticketing system, giving rise to strong suspicions of “tampering”.
It was also noted that though 39,000 passengers and 16,500 vehicles were recorded as having crossed the channel, they never made the trip back to Malta.
This could have financial repercussions because the two-way fare is only paid at the Mġarr terminal ticketing booth.
These shortcomings were flagged by the National Audit Office in a follow-up report meant to evaluate the progress in the implementation of recommendations it had made to Gozo Channel Co. Ltd a few years back.
The recommendations had been made on the strength of an audit for 2013, which had revealed significant internal control weaknesses. These varied from lack of control on overtime, inefficient use of human resources, weak budgetary control as well as unreliable and untraced documents.
In its follow-up analysis, done over the past few months, the Auditor General noted that the company had managed a financial turnaround since 2013 when it lost over €1 million. In comparison, last year, it made a profit of €1.8 million. A 22 per cent increase in revenue and a 35 per cent drop in fuel costs, mainly due to cheaper oil, contributed to the turnaround.
However, the report, tabled earlier this week, pointed out that last year’s merger between Gozo Channel and Gozo Ferries res-ulted in the setting off of an outstanding balance of €8 million as an intercompany transaction.
The Audit Office pointed out that, despite a raft of measures taken by Gozo Channel management to address the issues flagged in the previous report, certain concerns persisted.
It noted that misleading and unreliable records, ticketing discrepancies, non-observances of set procedures, inadequate documentation related to overtime ap-provals and payments as well as inefficient deployment of human resources were still present.
It mentioned discrepancies bet-ween the number of passengers and vehicles recorded on the electronic ticketing system and those actually boarding the vessels.
In its original report, the NAO raised concern that the possibility of “scanner resetting issues” – the device used to verify tickets – could lead to “serious abuses”.
It therefore urged the company to investigate further and take remedial action. Three years down the line, the Auditor General pointed out that, despite the company’s pledge to work hard on these issues, discrepancies were still evident and, in some cases, had become worse.
It transpired that, last year, 13,353 passengers and 648 vehicles were not recorded in the ticketing system. Furthermore, departures from Ċirkewwa exceeded those from Mġarr by 39,184 passengers and 16,566 vehicles. In the latter case, the variance increased by seven per cent over 2013.
The report also refers to a physical count carried out by NAO staff last May 15, which indicated that vehicles on board the ferry amounted to 93 whereas those recorded on the deck logbooks by the captain/chief officer, provided by the terminal staff, stood at 62.
A figure written by hand in a company report, showed that, between January and December 2016, over 2,000 vehicles were not mapped to any ferry. That meant tickets were purchased and cars going to the marshalling area but never getting on the ferry.
“It is pretty obvious that terminal duty officers are tampering with the scanners and this does not involve only headcounts but ticket sales, i.e. revenue,” the Auditor General said, referring to internal correspondence.