A driving examiner told a court he felt “added pressure” when his superior told him he should not make the driving test difficult for specific candidates.
John Scicluna, an examiner at Transport Malta (TM), took the stand before Magistrate Rachel Montebello in the proceedings against former TM director Clint Mansueto and two of his former subordinates, Raul Antonio Pace and Philip Endrick Zammit.
They are accused of leading a racket to ensure specific candidates obtain their driving licences, allegedly telling instructors to “take care” of candidates flagged by “some ministry or Castille”.
All three deny the charges.
Mansueto was suspended from his role as director at the Land Transport Directorate – a division of TM – in August 2023.
During his testimony, Scicluna explained that his superior, Mansueto, would assign the driving exams.
The exam certificates he would handlie would be put in a pack containing a small piece of paper on it with his initials – JS – as well as a note indicating specific time slots: for example, 9am.
The pack was either handed over to him by Mansueto or by Pace.
“The time on the paper referred to the exam scheduled for that time. And the instructions were to ensure that the exam for the candidate scheduled at that time would not be difficult,” Scicluna said.
He elaborated that, by “not making it difficult”, it meant not asking the candidate to drive through simple routes, avoiding things like roundabouts.
After the exam, if the candidate passed, Scicluna signed the certificate and would then inform Mansueto of the outcome.
There were times when he failed candidates and Mansueto did not get angry, he said.
He added that there were times when Mansueto asked him to read out exam questions to specific candidates even though they could read.
“This was added pressure. The aim is for them to pass… this is something not normal. I did not feel comfortable with this,” he said.
Lawyers Joseph Giglio, Arthur Azzopardi and Herman Mula represented the accused.
The prosecution was led by lawyer Abigail Caruana Vella from the Attorney General’s office and police inspector Wayne Borg.