Alternative energy planning - a little late!

All in all the budget was just palatable in places, laudable in others and a bit harsh for some. As I listened to the Prime Minister's Budget speech on Wednesday I was so pleased that the abusers of kerosene (no, they don't use it to get high, but to mix it with diesel to save money) have finally got their comeuppance.

We have had to put up with the stink and air pollution emanating from buses, vans, lorries and all kinds of heavy vehicles and machinery for too long.

The only thing that bothered me was that people who can only afford to heat their homes with kerosene might suffer. There is to be a one-off payment of Lm12 for those on benefits to be paid up to March next year. Not that that makes up for the increase, but every little helps.

Of course we are going to have heftier electricity bills. The only way that that could have been avoided was with forward planning, something a crisis management government lacks.

If the measures being taken now were taken years ago, when we were supposedly riding high, the oil prices would not be affecting us so badly today.

Countries like Greece planned ahead. When I was on one of the poorer islands in the early Nineties, most of the tiny houses had solar panels on their roofs. It was obvious that the government had heavily subsidised them, since there was no way these villagers could have afforded them.

But better late than never, and the Resources Authority is now designing an alternative energy policy, which will utilise our wind and solar resources.

There are also incentives to encourage people to install solar heating. However, considering the high cost of such equipment, I doubt that a one-off reimbursement with a Lm50 ceiling is enough.

Besides, the other incentive by Enemalta, whereby the company will install the electrical connection to the mains supply for free, only covers new buildings where solar energy equipment is being installed.

This of course means that the majority of the Maltese population will not benefit from this incentive. Buyers of electric cars will also get a one-off rebate of 15.25 per cent of the cost with a Lm500 ceiling.

I am in favour of the eco-tax. It will force me to take reusable shopping bags to the supermarket, and stop me hoarding mounds of plastic bags under the kitchen sink until I have time to take them to the recyclable bins.

However, there is no way I can take my shampoo bottles for a refill, and I can hardly save the toothpaste tube and have it refilled at the supermarket. So taxing the consumer on those goods is rather misguided.

Unlike plastic bags, which can be easily replaced by paper and other non-disposable carrier bags, shampoo and toothpaste packaging is the responsibility of manufacturers, not the consumer.

Those taxes should be directed at the provider, not the consumer. And Government should also ensure that the tax is not passed onto the consumer indirectly.

That consumers are taxed on items within their control is right, but tax on items beyond their control is unjust, and will not stop the pollution since people are hardly going to stop washing their hair and brushing their teeth.

If they do, we might have a cleaner environment at the price of citizens with greasy, smelly hair and halitosis.

Insight on the workings of the Ombudsman

Three important reports hit my desk last week - the 18th edition of the Ombudsman's "Case Notes", the Auditor General's "Performance Audit, Inventory strategy and Distribution of Pharmaceutical products - Health Division" and the report on "State Higher Education Funding".

Unfortunately, I cannot possibly fit comments on the three of them in one page. I shall try to fit the other two reports in next week. But here are some comments on the Ombudsman's "Case Notes".

This publication is very customer-friendly. You first see the list of cases with the department or organisation on the left, and the case reference and title on the right, with the relevant page number.

This means you can, at a glance, see which item interests you most. One that certainly urges you to 'read all about it' is titled "Where on earth is my car?"

The complainant had not only had her car towed away, but after having paid the Lm45 fine she spent half a day traipsing round the island trying to locate it.

The Ombudsman found that it was unfair that the police had made no attempt to contact the car owner before towing the car away since "these were temporary parking restrictions... and the (temporary) 'No Parking' signs were placed in the street after the complainant had left her car parked in an authorised parking bay".

However, had the owner found her car immediately on paying her fine, she probably would not have bothered complaining to the Ombudsman.

I believe that it was the ensuing cock-up that pushed her to complain.

I speak through experience, because I once had to fork out the towing fee, when my car was parked in front of a garage that was not used for car parking, but to store furniture.

I actually told the 'towing' people that it was my car before they towed it away, and that the garage was not being used to garage a car, but they still did.

I had paid the fine and found my car. Had I not found it quite so painlessly, I would have probably bothered to complain. Years later, when I met the owner of the garage (he does not live in the area) and asked him why he had not contacted me before calling the police, he said that he had not complained to the police, so it must have been a nosy neighbour. The towing away of my car had been 'illegal' on two counts.

Another valid point made by the Ombudsman in the 'mislaid' car case was that although the Traffic Regulations Ordinance was satisfied by the publication of the notice of temporary restriction of the parking bay in the Government Gazette, "the average citizen does not read the Government Gazette".

Therefore "the publication of the notice... in the government publication cannot be considered as a sufficient and effective means of informing the public".

This is a very important point, since a whole variety of notices, published in the Government Gazette, which are meant to reach the public, never do!

Anyway, the complainant got her money back on the towing fee because the police abided by the Ombudsman's recommendation. But since the Ombudsman has no jurisdiction on private companies, he could not recommend that the towing contractor compensate the complainant on the loss of a day's work.

The temporary 'disappearance' of the car was blamed on the contractor, since the police said that he had misunderstood their instructions. The police also informed the Ombudsman that, although they had appealed to the contractor to compensate the woman, he refused to accept responsibility for his actions.

The Ombudsman therefore recommended that "such a negative attitude towards the public should be taken into account at the end of the contract".

It also looks like the police should take another look at the contract and close any loopholes, which enable contractors to shun their responsibilities.

In his introduction, the Parliamentary Ombudsman, Joseph Sammut, explained that the case notes are issued primarily to bring to the attention of the public a sample of the wide range of cases, which demonstrate "the mixed bag of grievances that constitute the caseload of this institution".

They are intended to give "an insight into the reasoning underlying the findings and recommendations of the Ombudsman".

And the way the case is laid out makes for easy reading. You start with "The complaint" move on to the "Facts of the case" and end with the "Outcome".

The publication is available free of charge from the Office of the Ombudsman at 11, St Paul Street, Valletta.

Postscript

Can drivers please note that the indicator should be used to show other drivers which way they intend to go as soon as it is safe to do so?

I know that we have improved, in that people now know that the indicator is there for a purpose, and is not just for decoration. But after crisscrossing in the tunnels, drivers flashing their indicator and immediately changing lanes is the most common, irritating and dangerous bad habit of many Maltese drivers.