Bus transport system lost €30 million in 2014 – Muscat

Muscat on Disset: 'Sheehan shooting inquiry to establish 'source of information'

The nationalised bus service has lost €30 million in 2014, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said, defending his government's decision to accord some €23 million in subsidies to a Spanish bus operator to take the service and keep the fares the same.

The statement comes on the same day of a court hearing on Island Buses Ltd's contestation of Transport Malta's decision to award the tender to Autobuses de Leon, in which the court heard a TM lawyer say that the €23 million subsidy was for the initial phase-in of the public transport system.

Muscat said he will publish an inquiry report into the Sheehan shooting as soon as it is terminated, and defended his decision to announce an inquiry to be carried within two weeks in an interview with Reno Bugeja on PBS’s Dissett.

“I wanted the magisterial inquiry to take its course [but] the Opposition made a valid point in saying that the magistrate would not be investigating whether there was a cover-up on the events that took place,” Muscat said referring to the Nationalist Party’s insistence that a cover-up was at hand over preliminary claims that home affairs minister Manuel Mallia’s security driver Paul Sheehan had fired warning in the air when it turned out that the bullets were fired into a car he was giving chase.

“I appointed three retired members of the judiciary and asked the Opposition leader to chose the head of the inquiry. He prematurely turned down the offer… I’m the first to want to know what really happened, because at the time I was told that warning shots were fired… that version of events changed so we held a press conference the day after,” Muscat said.

He said that if will refer the matter to the Police Board if necessary but described the Opposition’s no confidence motion against Manuel Mallia, premature.

But Muscat was clear that he will consider any action to be taken over any responsibility indicated by the inquiry led by retired judge Albert Magri.

“I feel betrayed because the first information I had was that warning shots were fired. It will be the inquiry to decide what that source of information was,” Muscat said.

He said he would not tell Mallia to resign throughout the course of the two-week inquiry, dubbing such a move as a ‘Nationalist-style comedy’. “If any wrongdoing is found in his regard or of ministry officials, we will see there and then how to proceed… I don’t want this inquiry to trail on for months and years, and everyone forgets about it.”

Muscat however said he was concerned about the level of firearm training that a small number of armed security officers had – incidentally a sore point for the Opposition’s shadow home affairs minister Jason Azzopardi, who raised the matter frequently in parliament.

Ministers’ drop in ratings

Muscat found it easier to defend allegations made by the Opposition against ministers Chris Cardona, Helena Dalli and MP Luciano Busuttil. On the two casino concessions issued by Cardona, he said that the government had found that a bidder had a conflict of interest which is yet to be revealed in court; and he brushed off the over-zealous probing into illegal works on a property owned by Dalli’s spouse’s firm as a case where the government opponents were busy putting the spokes in the wheel.

Presenter Reno Bugeja, never one to suffer sanctimony, was on cue when Muscat said he would be “no judge or prosecutor” on the shortcomings of MPs from the other side of the divide.

“You’re neither any of those but you’re certainly looking like a goalkeeper taking in auto-goals,” Bugeja pointed out wryly, to which Muscat replied that his government was “bound to experience such situations” while it was busy “creating jobs, generating growth and cutting on benefit abuse… things can be done better, but on the fundamentals of finance, health and education, we’re on track.”

Muscat acknowledged that trust in his ministers had fallen to below 50% as shown in MaltaToday surveys, but he pointed out that trust in government had increased. “There’s no cause for panic, but it should not be taken lightly.”

He also defended his decision to appoint his MPs to chair public sector entities and commissions, claiming it was saving money that would have been spent anyway on other appointees and that he saved money by removing the parliamentary assistants created in the Gonzi administration.

Henley, Enemalta and oil prices

Muscat defended his decision not to publish the Henley & Partners contract to act as the IIP concessionaire, because rival tenderer Arton Capital represented by the office of Nationalist MP Francis Zammit Dimech was still contesting the concession in court. “We will present everything in the Public Accounts Committee,” he said.

Muscat also said he was “committed to publish” the contract for the new LNG plant with the ElectoGas consortium, barring any commercially sensitive that could damage Enemalta’s interests. “We have fallen behind on the LNG plant by months, not years,” Muscat said on the postponed deadline for the new Delimara plant.

Muscat said the price of oil was falling but despite having outsmarted the government’s hedging policy, he said he was keen on ensuring stability on fuel prices. “Tomorrow we could have Isis taking over some petroleum facility… we don’t know when the price of oil will increase because of political instability. Hedging provides a median for the sake of stability,” Muscat said, who said petrol and diesel prices remained below the EU average despite falling oil prices.