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Karl Stagno-Navarra
Government is set to take control over local enforcement, in an attempt to curb abuses that turned out to be a multi-million revenue-generator for local councils around the country.
The move follows comments made earlier this year by PN secretary-general Joe Saliba, who accused wardens of indiscriminate and heavy-handedness in local enforcement.
Speaking to MaltaToday, Parliamentary Secretary Carm Mifsud Bonnici explained that the move is intended to guarantee the general public a better safeguard against abuses by wardens and self-made sheriff-mayors.
While local enforcement is high on the disgruntlement list of regular opinion polls commissioned by the PN, government appears to be moving in on the issue, and is currently preparing a major overhaul to the legislation that in so far has left it powerless before local councils who have the say A recent amendment to the Commissioners for Justice Act now gives the minister the authority and discretion to impose his powers on local enforcement issues.
“It’s about correcting a situation that is getting out of hand,” said Carm Mifsud Bonnici, who said the abuses in enforcement are generating hundreds of thousands of liri to local councils.
Citing another recent example of abuse, Carm Mifsud Bonnici referred to the recently established petitions board, which has already upheld a massive 60 per cent of the appealed contraventions.
Asked at how government intends to control local enforcement, Mifsud Bonnici explained that government will institutionalise the Local Enforcement Section (LES) that administers the regional tribunals.
The tribunals will be issued with new guidelines on enforcement, and will be monitored by LES who will demand to look into every request for enforcement administration.
While government is equally splitting the blame for abuses on both local councils and wardens, a series of meetings have already been held at the Ministry for Justice and Home Affairs on the matter.
Government’s main concern regards the engagement by regional committees of so called authorising officers who in fact dispatch the wardens in the localities.
In the absence of a clear policy that regulates the authorising officers who are paid an average Lm16,000 yearly, government intends to impose policy on councils in order to ensure a say in the methods used to enforce laws.
Warden service companies are standing their ground and defending their position against the accusation of abuse, and are pointing fingers towards the same authorising officers and certain mayors who in fact dispatch the wardens and allegedly pressure them to fine and use a no-mercy policy.
However, it became more than clear that some form of “party control” was necessary when the brass at Tal-Pietà initiated a blitz on PN majority councils, lobbying for a more “friendly” and “lenient” approach to citizens by wardens. The lobby was entrusted to Paul Aquilina, recently appointed by Joe Saliba to coordinate between the councils which are up for election next year.
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