Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/767466
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 28 DECEMBER 2016 4 JEANELLE MIFSUD THE board of the Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools (FTS) has endorsed Raphael Axiak as the Foundation's new chief executive officer. He succeeds Philip Rizzo, who resigned from his post after al- leging corruption in the issuing of direct orders for renovation of government schools. The po- lice are now investigating Rizzo's claims, made with specific refer- ences to the role played by Edward Caruana, an aide to education minister Evarist Bartolo. Rizzo accused Caruana of exer- cising undue influence over the FTS procurement system, even telling Bartolo in an email that it was highly suspicious that Caru- ana was building an expansive apartment block in Rabat while accusations of incorrect procure- ment procedures were flying. Having previously held a role of an assistant director at the Plan- ning Authority, Axiak joined the public sector in 1995. According to the foundation, he has extensive experience in spatial planning, project design and man- agement, and has been lecturing at the University of Malta since 2004. The foundation added that the role of chief operating officer at the FTS will be integrated with the CEO's position. News Animal rights minister brushes off warnings on widespread trapping illegalities TIM DIACONO THE parliamentary secretary for animal rights has brushed off warnings by environmental NGOs that around a third of trapping sites across Malta are illegal as "grossly misleading." However, BirdLife Malta challenged the authorities to list the dates of inspections carried out on each and every trapping site and to publish the list of illegalities sanctioned out of their own accord, and not following reports by NGOs. This came after junior min- ister Roderick Galdes accused BirdLife Malta and the Com- mittee Against Bird Slaugh- ter (CABS) of not cooperating with government entities and insisted that enforcement of the ongoing trapping season for finches and golden plover is rigorous. BirdLife and CABS on Mon- day published the results of a study on 179 trapping sites across Malta and Gozo, which revealed that 69 (38%) of them were not registered with the Wild Bird Regulation Unit and therefore illegal. The two NGOs complained of a lack of enforcement of the trapping season, warning that several illegal trapping sites were still active at the end of November despite the fact that they had been f lagged to the police and the Environment and Resourc- es Authority (ERA). Also, the WBRU recently said that police had up until 15 December only prosecuted three people for the illegal use of trapping sites this season, while ERA had taken action on a single site in Gozo. "We have no faith in the WB- RU to provide adequate en- forcement due to lack of tech- nical competence, and conf lict of interest since they also open trapping derogations and issue trapping licenses," CABS press officer Axel Hirschfeld said. BirdLife conservation man- ager Nicholas Barbara warned that the illegal trapping sites are harming protected Natura 2000 sites and called for a cen- tral authority to supervise en- vironmental enforcement. However, Galdes in a state- ment on Tuesday poured cold water over the NGOs' claims, arguing that their study was based on a very small and un- representative sample of loca- tions surveyed from the air. "Following checks performed by the WBRU, the NGOs were informed that several site loca- tions provided by them were indeed unregistered with the authorities, and therefore any presumed trapping activity on the sites is outright illegal," he said. "This verification was immediately followed by physi- cal inspections of each unreg- istered site, performed by the police and WBRU. This re- vealed that in the vast majority of cases, the locations reported by CABS and BLM contained old disused trapping sites which, although appearing to the NGOs from the air as be- ing active, in actual fact were found to have not been used for years." He added that the WBRU in July 2014 introduced a new rigorous trapping site regis- tration and screening system that, among other conditions, requires trappers to prove that the sites had existed prior to the end of December 2012. Galdes said that, as a result of this new system, over a third of the total number of trapping sites that were previously ac- tive are no longer used. BirdLife calls for details on trapping inspections BirdLife responded by urging the WBRU to list the dates of inspections it has carried out on each and every trapping site in Malta, so as to help the pub- lic understand the extent of its coverage in enforcement. It also called on the unit to pub- lish the list of illegalities it has acted upon via its officers, out of their own accord, and not following reports by NGOs. "Ultimately, as WBRU itself admits in the results it pub- lishes, the unit seems to sim- ply rely on NGOs to report on enforcement," BirdLife said. "NGOs have been forthcoming with illegal reports, yet they will never support a deroga- tion which is in breach of the Birds' Directive and which is being contested at the Europe- an Court of Justice. A greater result for conservation is one in which trapping is halted, and Natura 2000 sites and wild birds are protected – some- thing WBRU seems to advo- cate against." It also defended its use of aer- ial surveys in its study, arguing that trapping nets visible from the air indicate that they are actually active. tdiacono@mediatoday.com.mt Raphael Axiak replaces Philip Rizzo as FTS chief executive "We have no faith in the WBRU to provide adequate enforcement due to lack of technical competence, and conflict of interest since they also open trapping derogations and issue trapping licenses" - CABS Roderick Galdes Raphael Axiak