Financing local government

At first I was inclined to ignore Joe Borg's contribution (November 24), in reply to my article of November 20 as he failed to address the method of financing local government in Malta - the only objective of my article. I hope he acknowledges that this is a complex exercise and is also being treated as a political football, to use his jargon.

I also have a personal resolve to dismiss people who, because of their qualifications and experiences in the UK (or abroad), feel superior and believe that any other related contribution, or whatever, from local sources is considered as below standard owing to "lack of experience", as Mr Borg puts it.

Mr Borg only extracted and dwelt on one sentence which, if read carefully, was described as "devolution projects" as a means to raise revenue additional to the allocation from public funds.

Quite some time ago, a local devolution programme was introduced by the central government to pass, to local government, public property or sites being misused or which local councils could make better use of. Some councils already utilise devolved properties and incur adequate refurbishment expenses to rehabilitate the premises for various uses to the benefit of their residents and to generate extra funds mainly to cover costs. This programme should continue to be exploited in a business manner by local councils.

On second thoughts, however, I considered that Mr Borg may have grossly misled readers in that local government in Malta is already "... a totally autonomous unit indulging in an uncontrolled free-for-all raising revenue" once, according to him, "checks and balances" have still to be introduced in local legislation.

In my opinion this is not the state of affairs in Malta. Adequate provisions already exist in the Local Councils Act, and ancillary legislation, to regulate local government expenditure. Perhaps, after all, Maltese legislators were not so naïve once these provisions have been in place since the start in 1993.

May I add that the Council of Europe is constantly revisiting its declarations and recommendations to address municipal topics in Europe and to make lower tiers of government more accountable for their actions and omissions. A good look at the thematic reports in the Summary and Operation of the Local and Regional Authorities Steering Committee, Legal Affairs, in the Council of Europe portal will prove my point.

Insofar as the raising of revenue is concerned, a cursory look at the Laws of Malta, Chapter 363 (Local Councils Act), Articles 34 and 35 deal with the making of bye-laws.

Local councils are already empowered to propose legislation for the purpose of carrying out their functions and for the prevention and suppression of nuisances in their locality. In fact, this also means that regulations may be introduced by local councils to increase revenue, say by the collection of fees to offset direct costs for extra services rendered to the public in general. However, the final authority to publish these bye-laws rests with the minister responsible for local government who has the power, within specified time-frames, to amend or object to any bye-laws as proposed by councils.

If the scope or aim of the bye-laws is to introduce taxation at local level, it is the declared policy of all political parties to object to the introduction of such legislation.

I have witnessed spokesmen of both political parties state and re-affirm in parliament that proposals for bye-laws deemed to raise or introduce taxes at local level will not be approved. Of course, this may change overnight, though very unlikely. We must, however, remain vigilant to evaluate such changes in policy so that this situation will not arise.

Furthermore, member states of the Council of Europe are not obliged to, and in fact Malta did not, subscribe to the provisions of Article 9.3 of the European Charter of Local Self-Government which empowers local authorities to derive financial resources from local taxes as they deem fit. A footnote to this effect was also included by Malta in another related European document.

To be fair to Mr Borg, I agree with him that, in spite of what may happen abroad, local councils in Malta are not "... the breeding ground for nepotism, corruption and empire building..." and we all certainly do not want this state of affairs here. However, in my opinion, to place local government abroad mainly in this category should be reconsidered.