Malta and Gozo’s 68 local councils are divided into five regional committees for the purposes of enforcement services in connection with traffic and parking offences in their areas. The five regional committees have the legal power to employ private enforcement companies, using wardens for such purposes.

The government is about to change this system radically in three ways.

First, it is setting up one centralised unit to manage the enforcement system. Local wardens will therefore no longer be employed by private enforcement companies but will be ‘nationalised’, that is, they will become government employees, falling under the so-called Local Enforcement System Management Committee. Wardens will earn a salary and there will be no element of commission.

Secondly, local councils will not be involved in the operation of the new system but wardens will be employed directly by the unit.

Thirdly, this unit will offer its services to the five regional committees, with the money collected going to local councils.

The government claims that the system in place is expensive and the bulk of the money raised (70 per cent) has been going into the pockets of the private companies while local councils received just 10 per cent and the regional committees get 20 per cent.

Under the new scheme, the unit will offer its services to regional committees, but, importantly, all the money collected will be given to the local councils. The new scheme could save up to 30 per cent of costs and these could be put towards better warden training. Moreover, the government promises that the unit will not only focus on traffic matters but also ‘give prominence’ to the environment.

On the face of it, there is much to commend this new organisation – provided always that it delivers what it is promising. This will be the supreme test of the new scheme: will it provide better value for money and will local councils benefit significantly by it?

There is no reliable information available to show that the financial savings being claimed for the scheme will be achieved. Nor is there any guarantee that the quality of training proposed will deliver improved efficiencies. Sowe have to take these statements on trust.

The most encouraging aspects of the new scheme are the dual commitments made: first, to ensure all money raised goes directly into local council coffers and, secondly, that wardens will not simply be deployed on parking and traffic duties (essential though these will continue to be) but on environmental safeguarding tasks as well.

Local councils have long been short of proper funding. Provided that the money which is raised by the scheme will indeed be to the benefit of local government funds without central administration taking a slice, this will be a long overdue improvement.

Secondly, there has been a crying need for ‘Green wardens’ for many years. Under the last administration, the much-touted recruitment of ‘undercover’ wardens to apprehend litter louts came to nothing. Their introduction now, coupled with strict instructions to bring the full force of the law to bear on those who litter, could make the difference to tackle environmental transgressions.

Although the new proposals will add to the government’s manpower count, the salary and other overheads resulting from the new scheme should be more than covered by the traffic and environmental penalty fines raised – provided they are collected.

The success or failure of the scheme will turn essentially on the quality of leadership of the local enforcement unit and the organisational capabilities of the five regional committees.