Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/204636
4 News Whip defends promotions received right after becoming MP David Agius MIRIAM DALLI THREE promotions and a salary increase received a year after he was first elected to parliament had nothing to do with his political role, Opposition whip David Agius has insisted. The Nationalist MP, first elected to parliament in 2003, works at the Malta Freeport as a manager with a €34,800 salary and a 10% performance bonus. Tunisian, Arab youths remanded in custody CHRIS MANGION TWO Tunisian youths and anoth- er from Morocco were remanded in custody after pleading not guilty to charges of theft and threatening police officers. At around 8.30pm on 30 October, while in a drunken stupor, Hamza Kaddouri, 24 of Morocco, stole a pouch containing cash and a mobile phone from inside a minibus parked at the Arriva Park in Qormi. However, driver Kevin Lungaro Mifsud chased the accused and managed to retrieve the pouch. The police arrested the subject who had been joined by Tunisians Elaidy Salem and Mahdi Ouerfelli both 22-years-old. The two co-accused, who were also drunk at the time of the incident, refused to give their details to the police sergeant. However all three were arrested at around 11pm and taken to the lock up at the Police headquarters in Floriana. Prosecuting inspector Roderick Agius explained how, while detained, Mahdi Ouerfelli threatened the constable on duty at the lockup. Inspector Agius also held Elaidy Salem committed an offence during the term of a suspended sentence. Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras remanded the three accused in custody. Legal aid lawyer Mark Mifsud appeared for the accused. Agius also receives an honoraria of €28,638 as the opposition's whip. According to information received by this newspaper, Agius joined the Malta Freeport Corporation in 1990 at clerical level but his first promotion came in 2004, a year after he became a member of parliament. In 2004 he was appointed assistant manager and in 2006 he was promoted to manager at level 3. In 2010, he was given another promotion, this time to a level 1 manager with an annual salary of €25,029, a €4,472 allowance and a 10% performance bonus. In 2012, his salary package was reviewed upwards to €30,000 salary, €4,800 allowance and a 10% performance bonus. Contacted by MaltaToday, Agius however insisted, "there was absolutely no political interference" in the promotions. "I have been there for 24 years and it's normal that one moves up in his career over such a long period of time," he said. Agius insisted that if there had been any political interference, he would have served as "a chairman or consultant". Asked to explain why his first promotion came after having worked at the Freeport for at least 14 years, the Nationalist MP said that he had spent some years studying at the University of Malta as a B.Com student. Between 1995 and 1996, Agius was seconded to work with Louis Galea, then Minister for Social Development. Before his secondment, Aguis acted as the personal assistant to the general manager of the MaltaFreeport Terminal. Following the 1996 PN electoral defeat, Agius returned to the Freeport. Some years later, he joined the B.Com University course where he studied economics and management. Until recently, Agius was responsible of the corporation's human resources and administration but has now been entrusted with EU funds. Junk mail no more? New waste policy aims to let people unsubscribe from unsolicited mail JAMES DEBONO FOR many opening the letterbox only to find it full of unsolicited junk mail is a daily occurrence. But the government is finally addressing this issue by seeking to ban this practice in the new Waste Management Plan, launched by Environment minister Leo Brincat last week. The government's goal is to reach an agreement with stakeholders with the aim of setting up a "regulatory framework" to enable citizens to unsubscribe from the delivery of unaddressed mail which many times ends up binned. The government will also encourage catalogue, directory and magazine publishers to move away from letterbox to letterbox distribution in favour of mailing by subscription only and offering these publications online. But if operators do not change their practices on distributing junk mail, the government will consider legislating in favour of penalties against those who persist in sending out unsolicited mail. The policy recognises that "a portion of recipients who would not like to receive such mail probably bin it without even reading it". This is resulting in the generation of considerable amount of paper waste, which at best ends up in the recyclable bag. Moreover, those who do not participate actively in separating this waste may divert these to the mixed waste fraction, compounding the problem further. While a debate arose on the digital world as regards to the privacy of one's email address and the option to unsubscribe from unsolicited mail, this issue has so far not been raised for traditional mailing services, the new policy document notes. Initially the policy suggests "a prudent approach" by the affixing of stickers on letterboxes asking distributors to refrain from depositing such mail. Companies which produce cata- logues will be encouraged to distribute their material in appropriate locations, like supermarkets and stationeries, where people can make a conscious choice to take a copy. In addition, such companies would be encouraged to email material to those who request to receive it through a subscription. The only attempt to control junk mail by the previous administration was through a botched tax. In the 2009 budget, the government proposed in a 1 cent tax on every 80g of paper delivered for free on a door-to-door basis if more than half the content of the publication consisted in adverts. The tax also applied to magazines handed out for free in newspapers. The measure was presented as an attempt to reduce "vast quantities of waste". But no reference to this tax was included in the 2010 budget and when asked by MaltaToday, a spokesperson for the finance ministry confirmed that "the government has decided not to implement the tax". PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD maltatoday, SUNDAY, 3 NOVEMBER 2013