Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/527016
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 14 JUNE 2015 15 people say that wardens hide so as to ambush motorists? A barefaced lie [gidba fahxija]!" Kenneth Demartino has mean- while become visibly animated. "I get very emotional, as you can see. Because I've had enough of 15 years trying to offer a service and always being criticised. Wardens do NOT hide behind trees. It is ri- diculous…" As I recall, this was actually the subject of a satirical skit on TVM, in which a warden came abseiling down the side of a building to is- sue a parking ticket. But while this may be a comic exaggeration… isn't there also an element of truth to this perception? OK, maybe they don't hide behind trees. But you will notice that wardens tend to wait at strategic choke-points on the lookout for offenders… eg, at the exit to a tunnel, to make sure their car lights are switched on…. Demartino acknowledges this, but again points to the existing flaws in the present system. "Once regions are empowered to draw up policy, they could ask me to pro- vide wardens at fixed points. E.g, 'please put a warden just outside the Santa Venera tunnels'. So I obey. What is the popular inter- pretation? 'Kenneth Demartino is putting wardens outside the tunnel to entrap people, so he can make more money.'… Now: where do I make more money…?" He shrugs with an air of exas- peration. Again, however, the percep- tion is only wrong in so far as the warden agencies' remuneration is concerned. But you could still ar- gue that the regional committees are 'entrapping' motorists, because issuing fines remains their only source of income… "No. Entrapment is not accept- able under Maltese legislation..." But wouldn't he consider his own example as a case of entrapment? "Not really. Let me explain. To begin with, can we agree that you do not need a warden on site to obey the law? You have a licence, you should know exactly what your licence allows you to do on the road. So if you're over-speeding, you don't need a speed camera to tell you that. If you park less than five metres from a corner… do you need a local warden to 'hide' so that he can give you a ticket? Do you know the law, or don't you..?" Fair enough, but there's another issue here. We all know that over- speeding is dangerous, but it's not the same level of danger as, say, driving through the Tigne tunnel – which is about 20 metres long, and illuminated by daylight anyway – with your lights off. So isn't it also the case that regional committees tend to focus on the petty infringe- ments, precisely because they're easy money-spinners? "No, I see it more a case that the regions are trying to deal with a lo- cal problem they have…" But seeing as he himself takes the flak for decisions such as these… what does he actually think of the policies imposed on his wardens by the authorities? He pauses. "I think that some- times the regional committees do not understand what 'equal enforcement' means. They don't always appreciate that there are certain contraventions which are extremely important to maintain road safety, and there are others that – yes, perhaps in certain cas- es are focused on too much, and do not necessarily relate to road safety. They are related more to road management. But it is up to the regional committees to com- ment on this. And that, I think, was the weakness in the system. And I think this government has corrected that weakness, with this reform that is going through as we speak…" The proposed reform, he goes on, is aimed at ironing out these different regional policies into one coherent whole. "The idea is to create a regulator, which would function on a national basis, with all the executive powers to dictate to the operator – i.e., myself – the terms and conditions of the en- forcement system. 'I want so much education, so much deterrence, so much enforcement, etc.' The na- tional regulator will set the policy, not the regional committees. That, in my opinion, is a step in the right direction. And I think it would be very unfair of anybody to criticise the importance of having a regula- tor in an enforcement system…" As it happens, the proposed re- form does have its fair share of critics: not least the Opposition, which has described it as a move away from decentralisation… therefore undermining the whole purpose behind the introduction of local councils in the 1990s. Kenneth Demartino was directly involved – or, as he will soon ex- plain, chose to directly involve himself – very closely with this re- form process. He was also a former PN local councillor himself. What does he make of the Nationalist Party's objections? "Let's talk a little about the re- form itself first. The original plan was to nationalise the entire serv- ice. In other words, the private sec- tor was going to be phased out. We were invited, like everyone else, to make our submissions after the White Paper was launched. In our submissions we explained to the government why the private sector should continue to be involved. "We were called in; we had vari- ous meetings at all levels, from top to bottom, and we stated our case. We believe the private sector has value in an enforcement system. We are very strong believers in the concept of 'public-private part- nerships': where the government should set policy, but management is entrusted to the private sector. Purely for efficiency purposes; because we believe the private sector can manage a labour force much better than the government. And we challenged [the govern- ment] to give us one reason why they believed they could improve the enforcement system by taking wardens under their own umbrel- la, and making them government employees. I think history is very clear on this point: it shows us that people employed by the govern- ment are not automatically more efficient than private sector em- ployees…" The government, he adds, proved willing to listen. "Some might ac- cuse it of doing a U-turn. I prefer to think it listened to reason, and had the courage to change its mind…" Did he have similar talks with the Opposition? Here there is a long pause. "I've tried, on many occasions, to talk to the Opposition. And yes, I do hope to have the opportunity to be able to discuss the issue in further detail. That was a very diplomatic answer, by the way…" Demartino however proves re- luctant to expand on this point. "I do my utmost not to involve poli- tics in an enforcement system, be- cause that is very unhealthy. I do have my own political beliefs. But whatever those may be, I genuinely believe that the government is tak- ing this enforcement programme to its next level… which is desper- ately needed… and I believe that if one understands why and how it is being done, I would imagine both the government and the opposi- tion would agree with it." Interview Warden service operator KENNETH DEMARTINO reacts to accusations that local wardens exist to squeeze money out of citizens and divert it to their private employer's coffers quotas? PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD