Standards watchdog cannot investigate driving test racket due to court proceedings

Standards Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi will not investigate a complaint concerning a driving test racket and private chats between Minister Ian Borg and a Transport Malta director.

In a decision handed down on 12 January, the Commissioner said he will not investigate the complaint so as not to prejudice ongoing court proceedings connected to the racket. The complaint is also time-barred since the actions concerned took place over a year prior to its filing.

There are court proceedings against three former Transport Malta officials, including the authority’s former director of licensing, for allegedly helping candidates secure their driving license.

Leaked chats showed government officials would flag the names of candidates to the director of licensing, and he would assign those candidates a “friendly” driving examiner or move them up the driving test queue.

Independent politician Arnold Cassola filed the complaint with the commissioner last October, asking that he investigate Borg.

Cassola acknowledged that the standards commissioner is following the law by choosing not to investigate the complaint.

“However, the way the law has been engineered in parliament, with the unanimous agreement and vote of Labour and Nationalist MPs, shows that the MPs were more interested in covering up for themselves, through the introduction of the one-year prescriptive period, rather than ensuring that justice is really served,” he said.