Warden agency chief denies making money off traffic contraventions

Warden agency chief denies making money off traffic contraventions

Kenneth Demartino, the operator of the larger of Malta’s two private warden service agencies, has hit out at claims that agencies like his make money off traffic contraventions.  

“There is a misconception that we have a vested interest to issue as many tickets as possible so that we become richer, and richer and richer,” Demartino told MaltaToday. “It is not the case at all.”

He explained that his agency is paid on an hourly basis by the regional councils to lease out wardens to their locality.

“It’s a self-financing programme – all the money from contraventions goes into the coffers of the regional committees,” he said. “Let’s be clear: no commissions, not to me, not to the local wardens. When the money is received by the regions, they have to pay all the bills. They pay the commissioner for justice, they pay the prosecutor, they pay the authorised officer; they pay the salary of the executive secretaries of the regions, the honoraria of the president…. They pay Datatrak [now called ‘Locus’], the IT company that provides all the technology… and they also pay us, the Guard and Warden Service, for the wardens they hire.”

However, he admitted that issuing tickets is the only source of revenue sustaining the warden system at present.

“If they don’t collect enough money from the citations, they need to put their hand in their pocket and pay us through the budgets they are given,” Demartino said.

Read the full interview in today’s edition of MaltaToday