The whistleblower who blew the lid on the alleged driving licence racket at Transport Malta was reluctant to disclose his current location when testifying via video link on Thursday, citing personal safety.

The man had emailed information to the police in 2020 about the alleged racket, triggering investigations that ultimately led to criminal charges against Clint Mansueto, director of licensing and his two underlings Raul Antonio Pace and Philip Edrick Zammit who are pleading not guilty to corruption. They allegedly gave a helping hand to some candidates for the driving test. 

The whistleblower had worked as a translator for Transport Malta.

Following his claims about the agency and separate claims about alleged voter fraud, he claimed he was forced to leave the country when his residence permit was unexpectedly revoked. Identity Malta had said his permit was revoked after he failed to adhere to application deadlines.

When he made the allegations about Transport Malta, he said he used to read out and translate questions for foreign candidates in the theory part of the driving test. He claimed that Mansueto used to ask him several times to indicate the correct answer to particular candidates flagged by some ministry or “even from Castille”.

The court last September accepted his request to testify in the proceedings against the three men via video link.

But his testimony on Thursday was short-lived on account of a language difficulty that became all too apparent as the witness spoke in Maltese with a heavy Arabic accent.

After taking the oath, he was asked by presiding Magistrate Rachel Montebello about his current location.

He refused to disclose that information explaining that he was “in a safe place” abroad after being forced to leave Malta.

He explained how he came to Malta in November 2006 and left on October 8, 2021.

He was first introduced as a translator to Transport Malta by “Sylvana Bartolo” in November 2015 and was tested his abilities before being engaged.

He said he would receive emails from Mansueto or his clerks about upcoming tests when his services were required and he would reply, indicating his availability. He would then be informed about the times of the tests and the languages he would have to translate for the respective candidates. Those included Italian, French and Arabic.

His payment varied according to the test category. He received €60 for each test in categories A to D and €60 for trucks and large vehicles, explaining that those tests took longer.

Asked by AG lawyer Angele Caruana Vella about the method of payment, he tried to explain how he would submit VAT receipts at the TM offices in Lija. But when asked about how the actual payments were effected, the language barrier, coupled with the fact that the connection was not all too clear, made things difficult.

As the witness struggled to convey the message clearly, speaking rather rapidly in his heavily accented voice, the magistrate asked him to repeat slowly and clearly.

He said that the payments were made directly to his bank account and he then handed in his fiscal receipts at TM’s human resources office.

He said it was Mansueto who would choose the translator as there were other translators for other different languages, such as Russian.

As questions turned towards his allegations about the “shortcomings” he had flagged at TM, the witness said that after “Sylvana went away” following the 2017 general elections, Mansueto took her place.

“He began to feel that there was no one above him and lots of abuse took place.”

But when asked to explain further, the communication problem persisted making it hard for all to decipher what he was trying to say.  

Faced with such a situation, the magistrate observed that the witness had not indicated any problem with Maltese in his application to testify. Had he done so, the court would have provided an interpreter from the start.

Upon agreement with the parties’ lawyers, the court halted the testimony and postponed it to a later date, appointing an Arabic interpreter to assist the witness on that day.

AG lawyer Abigail Caruana Vella and Inspector Wayne Borg prosecuted.

Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Jacob Magri assisted Mansueto.

Lawyer Joe Giglio assisted Pace.

Lawyer Herman Mula assisted Zammit.