Bus penalties for missed and late trips ‘too low’, audit office says

Maximum penalties for missed or late bus trips are “too low”, the National Audit Office said in its assessment of the public transport contract.

The performance audit found that the monthly maximum capping of penalties at €15,000 and €10,000 for missed trips and late arrivals respectively, pale into insignificance when compared to the €2.4 million paid out of public coffers every month to the bus company.

The NAO said that when compared to the €2.4 million public service compensation payable monthly by government these penalties amount to no more than 0.6% (for service reliability) and 0.4% (for service punctuality) of this sum.

“These percentages are excessively low to effectively serve as a deterrent for low performance in these two pivotal service levels,” the NAO said.

The audit was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.

The public transport contract with Spanish operator Autobuses de Leon was signed in January 2015 and expires in January 2030. The NAO said that over the concession period the government would be forking out €430 million in subsidies. 

The NAO review found that the contract had a number of shortcomings as a result of the ambiguous manner by which certain performance and penalty-related clauses were written.

However, the NAO also noted that this was exacerbated by the “leniency by which Transport Malta interprets some of these clauses, especially those related to safety issues”.

The audit also highlighted what it described as “severely inefficient and labour-intensive data processing mechanisms” utilised by Transport Malta to measure the performance of the bus service against the service levels stipulated in the contract.

“The audit team noted that this practice is more prone to human error and absorbs practically all the Public Transport Unit’s office-based resources,” the NAO said.

The audit also found deficiencies with the Public Transport Unit’s customer care function where no formal process by which customer queries or complaints are handled existed. 

The NAO found that filed complaints were not being recorded up to their closure, leading to the possibility of complaints not being addressed in a timely manner, if at all.

The audit noted that the Public Transport Unit was investing in a new IT system to automate most of the current labour-intensive processes.

The NAO urged the Public Transport Unit with the TM to change the classification of safety-related non-conformities, thereby reducing any unnecessary risk exposure to service users.

It also urged the unit to implement the new IT system and electronic aides to its on-the-ground staff.