The fourth pillar of this reform focuses on the actions required to ensure that the regulator's activities are indeed effective. Land and natural resources being both limited resources on the Maltese islands makes the regulation of land use and activities affecting the environment very critical.
The success of the reform, and more importantly the effectiveness of Mepa's regulation, is dependent upon the establishment of a robust enforcement regime in order to secure respect to the sustainability principle.
Establishment of an enforcement directorate
Enforcement is currently managed separately - the DPD and the EPD manage the enforcement function with respect to land development and environment respectively. In consonance with the holistic approach being promoted by this reform, a joint approach in enforcement would be more appropriate. A joint regime would strengthen the enforcement arm and would also yield efficiency gains.
The enforcement of land use and activities which impact the environment constitute two of the most difficult activities to regulate. In this context, the government will monitor closely the implementation and effectiveness of the setting up of the enforcement function as a dedicated structure with its own set of resources and independent of other functions within Mepa. The enforcement directorate would be responsible for monitoring and enforcement action in respect of both planning and the environment and would report to the CEO. Mepa's enforcement regime can be used as a pilot to study the performance, strengths and weaknesses of such a set-up. Based on this evaluation, this model could be adopted by other regulatory authorities. Alternatively, if this regime works, the government may study the potential to extend the concept into a national enforcement agency. The centralisation of enforcement for planning and environment, although smaller in scale, could act as a pilot to test the centralisation of additional regulated activities into one structure.
In setting up the enforcement directorate within Mepa, consideration will be given to allowing this directorate the discretion to enter into contracts with other regulators to assume their enforcement functions. This form of "subcontracting" of services within the public sector would require that the resources attached to the function in the particular regulatory authority be migrated to the enforcement directorate within Mepa so as not to exacerbate the human resource deficit within Mepa.
The role of local councils
Local councils have a very important role to play in ensuring effective enforcement. The small size of Maltese towns and villages facilitates monitoring and the flagging of irregularities. Local councils act as "watchdogs" of development within their particular locality. Moreover, they can also act as an intermediary between the citizens and Mepa. Citizens may prefer reporting a particular irregularity to their council rather than making use of Mepa's proposed freephone service. This channel may also result in a more complete report of the irregularity as councils' personnel can gather additional information in addition to the citizen's complaint about the irregularity.
It is in this context that the enforcement arm within Mepa needs to develop and maintain a close-knit relationship with local councils in order to improve its reach across the Maltese islands and ensure a more effective enforcement regime.
As part of this reform, the government will also make provisions for the migration of responsibility for construction site management to a new structure - the building regulations office - within the service division, MRRA. Mepa is currently responsible for the enforcement of the environmental management construction site regulations, as well as, littering regulations. These two sets of regulations will be migrated from Mepa; responsibility for the construction site management regulations will be transferred to the services division within MRRA; and enforcement of the littering regulations will be delegated to local councils.
These proposals will take into account the need to honour existing arrangements and obligations. This is in consonance with the rationalisation of Mepa's core functions aimed to allow Mepa to focus on its core remit and to provide for a better fitting of such functions in other public sector entities.
In its pre-budget document for 2009, the government committed to further promote environmental responsibility in the construction sector. The set of initiatives to be implemented in this respect will be consolidated into a draft Building Regulations Act which will issued for public consultation this year. Through the establishment of this Act, the government intends to ensure: good practice in construction activity, in particular demolition and excavation works; appropriate insurance coverage for all construction activity against damages to third parties; and that residents occupying properties in adjoining construction sites are adequately informed and provided with an efficient redress mechanism.
This Act will establish the BRO which will act as the competent authority to enforce building regulations. The BRO, within the services division, provides the ideal set-up to enforce construction site management regulations. This office will also be responsible to enforce the required procedures in respect of the protection of third party rights and the avoidance of damage to third party property.
Government intends, through this reform, to recast the provisions that had been enshrined in Bill 117 of the 10th legislature, which remained pending in view of the March 2008 general elections, with a view to strengthening the enforcement within ODZ. The objective of this Bill was to amend the DPA in order to further strengthen law enforcement in ODZs. This is intended to discourage any illegal developments and also enhance the planning procedure by making it more transparent by, inter alia, strengthening the right of appeal for registered interested parties and by further enhancing the public consultation process in relation to the subsidiary plans.
On their part, local councils have an accurate knowledge of the local issues facing their localities and are in a better position to identify the "hot spots" related to certain issues. The littering "hot spots" are thus seen to be more efficiently identified by local councils, who in this way will contribute further to the environmental upkeep and support the enforcement culture which the Mepa reform is intended to bring with it.