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6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION 2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 MARCH 2024 Silvio Grixti does not deserve our sympathy Editorial SILVIO Grixti is ostensibly only the second pol- itician in Malta to be charged with involvement in a corrupt ring. The other one was former La- bour minister Lorry Sant, who was only acquitted of charges for his corrupt land deals in the 1980s because the case against him and others was time- barred. Whether Grixti benefited personally from the social benefits racket he masterminded is for the court to determine. But he is accused of forming part of a criminal conspiracy involving Roger Agi- us, Emmanuel Spagnol, Dustin Caruana, and Luke Saliba, with offences relating to fraud and organ- ised crime. Grixti, a family doctor by profession and a for- mer MP, may still be viewed in a positive light by some of his regular patients and former constitu- ents in the Zejtun district. They may also believe that his intentions were good – trying to help peo- ple who required a cash boost because they had fallen on hard times. And in typical Maltese fashion, even if these people know that what Grixti did was wrong, they may still excuse him because he is a good doctor at heart. But irrespective of the understanding Grixti may find in his patients, the plain truth is that he re- neged on his duty as an elected member of parlia- ment to uphold the rule of law. Grixti was not simply helping constituents who found it difficult to navigate complex bureaucrat- ic situations, or trying to understand why a ser- vice or benefit has been denied to them. Grixti was not trying to solve a problem for anyone who may have encountered it, or at the least applying pressure as an elected official for policy to change. No, Grixti was part of a scheme that helped un- deserving beneficiaries to siphon off taxpayers' money at the expense of those who truly deserve the severe disability benefit. Grixti was not performing a service for his con- stituents. He was allegedly helping some of them to cheat the system and benefit from money they were never entitled to. Grixti does not deserve our sympathy. The charg- es show he was at the heart of a corrupt scheme and thus breached the trust of voters who elected him to serve them and the country. But Grixti also breached the trust of fellow med- ical professionals when he allegedly gave clients forged medical documents to support fake illness- es. Unknowingly to them, medical professionals ended up as victims of this fraudulent scheme. Grixti may appear a hero in the eyes of those he helped but the doctor breached the trust of law abiding constituents who expect their MPs to act fairly, within the boundaries of the law and cham- pion causes that benefit the widest possible num- ber of people and not the select few. It is good that the police have charged Grixti and others with him who they believe masterminded this corrupt scheme but they must also investigate in earnest whether those who referred people to the Żejtun doctor were also willing participants. Did these Labour Party functionaries, ministeri- al aides and politicians know what Grixti was up to but closed an eye to the abuse because it suited their party in electoral terms? The police must try and answer this question by investigating those who may have acted as go-be- tweens. This was a corrupt scheme that saw beneficiaries taking home thousands of euros in benefits while audaciously still going about their daily lives as normal. Today, these beneficiaries are crying because they have to give back the money they received through deceit. Instead of taking it out on the rest of society they should redirect their anger at those who led them down a dangerous rabbit hole and in doing so they should understand that they were also willing participants in a corrupt scheme. It is law abiding taxpayers and voters who should be angry. It is parents of severely disabled chil- dren who should be angry for seeing their chil- dren's condition being abused in a corrupt way. It is deserving adult beneficiaries who should be livid. Indeed, it is honest politicians who should be pissed off because one of their own has tarnished their reputation. Grixti deserves no one's sympathy. Quote of the Week "The pursuit of peace and social progress among all nations is not something solely enshrined in the constitution, but guides us in our international relations, including today as members of the United Nations Security Council." Prime Minister Robert Abela addressing a summit of EU leaders held in Brussels on 21 March, which called for a ceasefire in Gaza. MaltaToday 10 years ago 22 March 2014 State moves in to take control of local wardens THE running of Malta's local enforcement sys- tem has become too costly to keep up with the expectations of the two private companies which provide Malta's and Gozo's 44 local councils with wardens, CCTV cam- eras, and speed cameras, and the only way it can survive is to issue more tickets and col- lect more fines. But Labour seems to be living up to a warn- ing sounded by Joseph Muscat in 2011 that the "sub- sidised racket" of local enforcement would longer be tolerated under a new govern- ment. "Yesterday, parliamentary secretary for local government José Herrera unveiled plans for a new centralised unit to take over the manning of local wardens. Herrera has pledged a 30% reduction in costs - a reduction that industry insiders de- duce can only be achieved by cutting out the private sector. But the parliamentary secretary said that today's system was built on the misleading as- sumption that it should make money for local councils when in reality, uncollected fines and a decline in contraventions and speed- ing offences being committed, has rendered the system unsustainble to run. Herrera's solution will be to turn the LES in- to a national unit of wardens serving councils, rather than the private operators taking over 70% of the total fines issued over the years. Labour taking on 'subsidised racket Malta's local warden system is in the pro- cess of being reformed, 14 years after it was first introduced – but the jury is out on what government's plans for a centralised unit means for people like Kenneth De Martino, whose Guard & Warden Service runs the gamut of local enforcement services, deploy- ing wardens to the coun- cils, monitoring CCTV systems and also processing speed camera fines. ...