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Karl Schembri
Transport Minister Jesmond Mugliett had asked the Transport Authority (ADT) for driving examinations figures to check whether there were any anomalous patterns of passes and failures by motoring schools, but for at least one driving instructor, the pattern was all too clear.
“Whenever there was this particular examiner I would say a prayer for my students,” the instructor said about one of the examiners indicted by the police in connection with the bribery scandal that rocked the authority. “They always failed; it was always the same story. I couldn’t understand how students would always fail with him and pass with others.”
Since it was revealed by MaltaToday late last May, a clearer picture of the cash for licences scandal is emerging. Tomorrow, the picture should be even clearer when the board of inquiry set up by the minister is expected to present its conclusions.
Headed by Louis Cilia, the board is meant to investigate the allegations of bribes received by the authority’s driving examiners and a drink-driving hit and run case by one of the examiners also revealed by this newspaper.
Among the tasks listed in its brief, the board is expected to investigate how the authority acted upon reports about the alleged bribes, and to review the systems and procedures used at the driving examinations unit, where five out of the six examiners have been arrested by the police in separate investigations.
Mugliett said when interviewed in the midst of the bribery scandal last month that he used to check results statistics to see if there were any patterns indicating abuses since the new exam was introduced two years ago. Despite widespread rumours that had also reached him, he said he could never find a specific incident suggesting corruption.
“At one point there were some suspicions because the examiners could know beforehand who they would be examining, giving an opportunity for abuse, and that was changed,” he said. “At times I also asked for statistics to check the pass rates achieved by motoring schools, to check if there was a pattern of possible abuses, but nothing resulted out of that.”
The police have however filed charges against two examiners and a driving school, Swallow Garage, in connection with the bribery scandal.
Sources from the authority speak also of victimised driving schools. Contacted, the owner of one driving school who spoke on condition of anonymity said that while he was never asked for bribes, one particular examiner who is now facing the charges always failed his students.
“Before this story came out, I used to think that either he or I was interpreting the regulations wrongly,” he said. “I had students failing up to four and five times with him, driving them to desperation. Now I can understand things much better.”
Pass rates of the new driving test have never been high, but the instructor says that with this one examiner his students “failed religiously”.
Yet the minister said last month: “Whenever I used to ask about the high failure rates I was always told by the licensing directorate that the new test was modelled on the British driving test; that it was a rigorous test and the pass rates were similar to international pass rates.”
The instructor also recalled one incident in which a student had asked him not to remain in the car for the test.
“I had a case, also with the same examiner, in which the student had asked me to stay out of the car,” he said. “I got out, although I thought it was strange. Then I realised there were other students who asked their examiners not to accompany them, and they always passed.”
The instructor said the situation is completely different now that all but one of the authority’s examiners have been changed, with the rest on forced leave. Pass rates are “back to normal” although the authority and its driving exam remain severely dented by the scandal.
Both the minister and the authority’s Chief Executive Gianfranco Selvaggi have played down the possibility of widespread bribery that would put into question hundreds of licences that could have been bought.
“I think you’re jumping to conclusions,” the minister said. “Nothing has been proven so far, it has yet to be proved that this was something systematic. Even though there are five examiners on forced leave we still don’t know what they will be charged with exactly, if at all.”
Tomorrow, Mugliett should have the inquiry report on his desk at the ministry. Publishing it immediately would perhaps help in quelling speculation, hoping, that is, the inquiry is not part of the authority’s own exercise in damage control.
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
Links:
www.maltatoday.com.mt/2006/07/02/t11.html
www.maltatoday.com.mt/2006/07/02/t10.html
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