A t least Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said is learning the ropes of political administration rather faster than some of his colleagues. Four months into his first political job near the top he has discovered that enforcement works.

That came about in the context of a fortnight's drive by police officers, local wardens and Malta Environment and Planning Authority inspectors to crack down on littering and dumping offences.

In two weeks those officials handed out more than 300 fines, including minor offences like throwing cigarette butts in the street to more serious breaches such as leaving building sites unsecured.

Well, if that was a start of a new lookout for those who do not give a hoot about laws and regulations, it was better than nothing. It was not that good, either. Three hundred breaches and more can be detected in a single day. But a start is a start.

What was called the multidisciplinary team monitored various problem areas selected by local councils in order to catch people red-handed. That seems to have triggered communication by street drums in what is a veritable jungle because the sallying forth of the team was interpreted to have had a deterrent effect. Said was at pains to assure the public through the media that no "entrapment" was involved and that the operation also included issuing of warnings to raise awareness about the problem of littering.

Among guilty parties it should not be awareness of the problem that is raised. Official action should be targeted to create a consciousness of irresponsible acts by self-centred egotists who do not give a hoot about the environment.

Who go about messing it up without caring that they are perpetrating other regarding actions - actions that do not simply show them up as a careless lot, but which expose the fact that they are not bothered by the damage they cause to others when they taint their enjoyment of what should be public order.

Still, 300 plus a bit more fines was enough to persuade Said that action is better than no action. "Enforcement works," he 'insisted' (The Times, August 26).

It does, it does. Except that typical enforcement by local wardens, for instance, works more for its vexatious nature than anything else.

Wardens should be catching red-handed hundreds of individuals who litter daily, from the flicking of cigarette butts outs of their cars, to walking their dogs without being prepared to pull them away from doing their jig against residences or to clear up the resulting mess.

Wardens, especially if they are judiciously deployed by local councils within their towns and villages, should catch scores more driving at speeds which make a dangerous foolery of urban speed limits. Instead, too many wardens concentrate on issuing tickets to people who offend against no-parking markings, thereby raising revenue for local councils.

Mdina wardens, for instance, delight in paying a visit to a bar and restaurant area just outside the old city walls to nab car owners who have squeezed into some rare place without blocking others, but being a place not marked to allow parking. And so on it goes from village to town, from town to village.

I have yet to see a warden taking note of dangerous driving in various of the roads of Attard, where I live, or in Rabat, Qormi, Marsa or Sliema, through which I pass frequently.

The enforcement wardens like to effect is that of easy pickings. That is not what the warden system was created for. Primarily, it should be a deterrent against those of us who, with cavalier self-centredness, drive dangerously, ignore traffic signs, park in manner that blocks others, or who litter at will, who drive by with music blaring enough to wake ghosts, who rev their car engines and indulge in various other forms of noise pollution.

All of that should not seem to be against the initiative taken to deploy multidisciplinary teams for given periods, or detract from Said's satisfaction.

Rather, it is to back up such initiatives with implicit and explicit suggestions of where else they could be undertaken, and how.

Posting two warders at the early part of the Attard-Rabat road is not quite the way to do it. Nor does it help the issue to talk of entrapment. That reference is an implicit admission that there are wardens who play that particular trick.

For them not to do so, proper training and briefing should be given. Moreover, they should be deployed in a manner that is designed to pay dividends by deterring breaches of laws and regulations, and not by snatching as many euros as can be through fines.

Enforcement of the right sort does pay. Perhaps Said could stress the fact to his colleagues, other parliamentary secretaries and ministers. There are many areas where enforcement is prominent through its absence. Perhaps the plus-300 fines levied through the pilot project started on August 12 could serve as encouragement for better things to come.

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