Gozo Channel ship inspections ‘consisted merely of a checklist’

Transport Malta (TM) officials inspected Gozo Channel’s vessels just four times last year, with the latest report by the National Audit Office (NAO) clearly stating that those four inspections “still lacked adequate detailed documentation and consisted merely of a checklist.”

Gozo Channel’s aging fleet consists of three ships which were tailor-made for the Malta-Gozo ferry crossing and a fourth Greek vessel that is leased from private operators. In 2024 alone, over 6.8 million passengers used Gozo Channel’s services, a clear indicator of just how vital this link between the islands is.

Despite the national importance of this public ferry service and Gozo Channel’s contractual obligations, TM officials carried out just four inspections in 2024.

TM claims that “other, undocumented, random inspections were carried out through the year”, that it will increase yearly inspections “to a minimum of six, once every two months”, and that it will increase managerial oversight to address any reporting deficiencies. The authority did not commit to revising the checklist format of the inspection system.

Though TM’s inspections covered the bare minimum requirements of the contract between Gozo Channel Operations Ltd and the Maltese government, the state’s auditors noted that the lack of detail in the authority’s checklist system failed to provide “a clear account” of the inspections themselves, the outcome of that process, and any corrective action which was carried out as a result.

“This may limit management’s ability to evaluate potential issues or deficiencies identified during such inspections to be addressed in a timely manner,” the NAO’s report reads.

Though the government fully owns Gozo Channel’s holding company, Gozo Channel’s services are dictated largely by what is known as a Public Service Obligation (PSO) agreement, which outlines how taxpayer money is to be allocated to Gozo Channel and what it needs to be spent on to honour its public commitments.

In 2024, a budget of €14.7 million was allocated for compensation for Gozo Channel trips, with almost €16 million being paid out in total to cover costs for all the trips that Gozo Channel vessels undertook last year. The NAO did not observe any serious shortcomings in how these compensation claims were calculated.

Year after year, the state-owned ferry operator continues to bleed out money, in spite of the fact that it receives millions of euros in subsidies to cover its expenses. Moreover, the lack of long-term infrastructural investment in new ships means that the route inevitably sees hours long queues on its busiest days.

In October, The Shift published an article which detailed how every Gozo Channel trip undertaken in 2023 cost taxpayers around €400 in subsidies, with a closer look at the company’s accounts revealing how it is losing around €10 million a year just to keep the service running.

The public ferry’s precarious financial situation was made worse by Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri’s decision to repeatedly lease out the almost four decade old MV Nikolaos, a Greek vessel that is costing taxpayers over €10,000 a day and often requires far more maintenance and downtime than the other vessels in the fleet.

The public ferry service has also been consistently used as a hub to dish out jobs and lucrative contracts to both individuals and external private operators alike, with costs from dubious overtime figures for employees and overpriced lease agreements reaching staggering highs over the past couple of years.

In February last year, the Gozo Minister had claimed that “a new vision” for Gozo Channel was to be announced by the end of 2024. No such plans have ever materialised, raising serious questions about whether Gozo Channel’s aging fleet can keep up with the Maltese islands’ growing population numbers.