Karl Schembri Bus owners are up in arms at what they are calling the Transport Minister’s “downright deceit and shameless spin” in the dispute about the payment of government subsidies last year.
On Monday, Transport Minister Austin Gatt claimed he was given an ultimatum by the Association of Public Transport (ATP) which was requesting to be paid subsidies for the four-day strike ordered last year.
But the letter actually sent by the association to the minister, and seen by this newspaper, makes it clear it had agreed not to be paid subsidies for the duration of the strike. The issue is the amount that had to be deducted from the annual subsidy.
Speaking to MaltaToday Midweek, ATP President Victor Spiteri lambasted Gatt for “trying to turn the public against bus drivers” when the issue had to be tackled through arbitration.
“We have never asked to be paid subsidies for those four days. To the contrary, we had agreed there would be no subsidy for the duration of the strike."
In fact, the drivers’ association and the minister had agreed last year to take the matter for arbitration as, while they both agreed about the suspension of subsidies, they disagreed on the amounts to be deducted.
But earlier this year, ADT unilaterally deducted €233,000 from the association’s subsidies for 2008. In a letter to the minister, Spiteri wrote: “That they deduct subsidies for every day we went on strike, we understand… but that ADT just deducts €58,250 for every day does not make sense at all.”
Spiteri said that from a €4 million yearly subsidy, one would expect around €11,000 a day to be deducted, not €58,250. This would in total amount to a €44,000 deduction as opposed to the €233,000 deducted by ADT.
Another €1.5 million are reportedly due from government as public service obligation dues for subsidised tickets for the elderly and students.
“When I wrote to the minister, I urged him to intervene as we can’t pay our members their salaries to keep giving their services,” Spiteri added.
“We haven’t gone to arbitration yet, so ADT is being wrong and unfair in removing the amount it decided on its own. It goes against the very agreement signed with the prime minister last year which led to the suspension of the strike.”
He said the agreement also stipulated resuming discussions on the way forward for public transport reform, but this has not happened yet. These included the options to go for an open tendering system, establishing an internal operator under a nationalised public transport service, or outsourcing bus services to SMEs.
“Instead, Gatt just faced us with his demands on 10 December, in which he told us he was only ready to go for an open tender,” Spiteri said. “This would mean that all the investment bus owners have put will go down the drain.”
Another point of the agreement reached last year in connection with the suspension of the strike was for bus owners to have their government insurance resumed as normal.
“Instead, bus owners who went to pay their insurance policy found they had to pay much higher fees,” he said.
Reform needed
Meanwhile Spiteri has also protested with the government at the unprecedented spate of fines issued against bus owners who do not have garages to park their buses at night.
“Unlike public service bus owners abroad who are provided with specific garage space by the authorities, a number of our members do not have their own parking spaces and others are still awaiting MEPA permits to build appropriate garages,” Spiteri said.
“These fines are unjust as they provide them with no alternative. How can they keep giving a public service in such circumstances?”
In a statement released yesterday, Gatt reiterated his claim that government will not pay subsidies for the duration of the strike and that it will not bow to pressure of threats. He added that independent auditors are meanwhile verifying the association’s accounts to verify its entitlement to subsidies.
“Government confirms it will honour its contractual obligations with ATP and will, once the audit into its accounts is confirmed, pay the owed subsidies for 2008,” Gatt said.
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