Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/525174
8 CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 Malta's local warden system is being partly nationalised through the system of a centralised unit of wardens that will take away control from private warden systems employed by regional councils. In 2014, parliamentary secretary José Herrera claimed that the "fairer and more trans- parent" system would reduce costs by 20% and become more efficient in collecting some €18 million in unpaid fines. The key change was granting the new local enforcement agen- cy a centralised role in enforc- ing the laws currently delegated to the five regional committees. This means effectively taking on the administration of local wardens, from the private com- panies currently providing the manpower for the local coun- cils. The management commit- tee would have the necessary human and financial resources to have a fully functioning en- forcement system. The PN however said yester- day that it should be the local councils themselves that decide where and when wardens should be present, rather than the cen- tral agency. "The chairman of the agency, nominated by the minister, will be the one to de- cide whether to have enforce- ment or not in certain zones. We are against subjective deci- sions," Azzopardi said. De Marco, who said the PN had reservations on Ray Zammit's appointment, said the principle of subsidiarity was sacrosanct to the PN. "We're either going to deem the local councils a success-sto- ry or diminish their powers… we're against this agency be- cause certain powers should be kept closer to citizens. Instead we're taking it away from the lo- cal councils and placing it back in the hands of central govern- ment." The Labour administration says that private firms like Guard & Warden and Sterling Security, which service coun- cils with warden services, have reaped 74% of the value of local fines being dished out. Between 2003 and 2008, war- dens and speed cameras issued a total of 1.6 million tickets at a value of €56 million. The ac- tual number of tickets paid was much lower, with 'only' €39 mil- lion received by local councils – leaving well over 25% of unpaid tickets in bad debts. The system is costly to run. Of the €23 million, €19 million was the cost of wardens and IT serv- ices for the running of the speed cameras by Datatrak. 53% went to Guard & Warden and Sterling Security (another firm, Aurelia, also provided wardens for two regional councils) and 31% went to Datatrak (now Loqus). Consultant Michael Cohen, a former mayor, who was tasked with the reform of the local en- forcement system had said last year that since 2013, local coun- cils failed to collect up to €18.5 million in unpaid citations. He also claimed that the reform could save the government up to €1.2 million a year. How does the local enforcement system (LES) work? There is no doubt that the devolution of police duties to the local enforcement system in 1999 developed into a money- generating mechanism for local councils. In a White Paper launched in 2014 the government said that councils "were given the mis- leading impression they could be strengthening their finances" and that the discrepancy be- tween the amount of money ac- tually collected led to infighting over councils which made more money. Councils geographically lo- cated on busy thoroughfares, like Sliema and St Julian's, stood to make even greater revenues through the speed cameras lo- cated on Regional Road. In 2002, 44 councils – 30 in Malta and 14 in Gozo – created a pooling system and in 2011 this developed into the region- al system: regionally grouped committees which took the col- lective decision to employ au- thorised officers and contract out private companies to deploy local wardens and process speed camera and CCTV fines, and to run their local tribunals. But despite the €50 million in collected fines, little of this cash ended up in the councils' budg- ets after the costs of the system were taken into account. The White Paper says the LES is a vicious circle: if councils want to make more money, they have to pay the private compa- nies to dish out the fines... and that means more fines. If they are not making enough cash now, the system will crumble unless more fines are issued. MATTHEW AGIUS A court has given a drug addict from Qormi, who was found guilty of making use of fake €100 notes, a last chance to avoid pris- on after being told that he had demonstrated a commitment to change his ways. Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera had heard how Darren Mizzi, 33, had used fake €100 notes on two separate occasions in June 2013. Mizzi had bought a heart-shaped wreath and a Vodafone card with one fake note before proceeding to a bar where he had used the other €100 bill to purchase soft drinks and cigarettes. Both shopowners noticed that the banknotes were smoother than regular banknotes and contacted the police, suspecting them to be fakes. Mizzi was sub- sequently arrested. The accused had released a statement to the police explain- ing that he was a drug addict and had bought drugs, together with the fake banknotes – at €35 each - from a man he called il-Bojja ("the executioner"). He claimed not to have been aware that the money he had used that day was not legal tender, as he had received a cash refund of some money which he had de- posited in court in connection with another case. A probation officer told the court that Mizzi appeared to be making a genuine attempt to turn his life around and attend a resi- dential drug rehabilitation pro- gramme. The court was told that Mizzi could not start the programme immediately as his current meth- adone dose exceeded 50 millili- tres bringing his usage down to this level would take two months. The magistrate noted that Miz- zi had several previous convic- tions, including convictions for theft and living off prostitution, but gave him one last chance, handing down a one-year custo- dial sentence suspended for three. He was placed under a supervi- sion order for three years and or- dered to reimburse the two shop owners. maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 10 JUNE 2015 News New warden system aims to be 'fairer and more transparent' Court gives addict one last chance to reform Darren Mizzi from Qormi, found guilty of using fake €100 banknotes, claimed not to have been aware that the money was not legal tender as he had received cash from other sources that day