Local councils suffering funding cut

Dr Chris Cardona, opposition spokesman on local councils, yesterday hit out at the government for cutting funding for local councils, 10 years after their setting up.

Funding had been cut by Lm50,000, further aggravating the councils' bad financial situation, Dr Cardona told parliament during the budget debate. And the councils would also suffer increased costs owing to the imposition of a higher rate of VAT. To date six per cent of councils' funding went on VAT payments. That would increase to 7.6 per cent next year.

While the government claimed to be the champion of the councils, of subsidiarity and devolution, the councils had not even been mentioned in the budget speech except for a passing reference in the context of tourism. There were no new ideas on how the councils could be further developed into local governments.

The government was showing no interest in the councils and was letting them die a natural death, using them only as an excuse to hide its own failures and inaction. Was this the way how to forge a social pact?

The opposition wanted the councils to branch out into new areas such as more effective law enforcement and traffic management. But that was hardly possible with less funds.

Last year, the councils also suffered a five per cent cut in their funding following a blanket cut-back by the government on all government entities. That had been especially unfair because the councils had not even been consulted on that cut and may have already allocated those funds.

The Local Councils Association, headed by Dr Ian Micallef, was among those that had strongly criticised the government over the five per cent cut, pointing out that no consultation had been made and the reduced funding had seriously undermined the operation of some councils.

Clearly, Dr Cardona said, the government, while preaching autonomy and consultation to the councils, was acting arrogantly.

The same applied also in areas such as waste separation, where the government had imposed how and by whom waste separation should be made, but then left it up to the councils to pay up.

But then the government hid under the pretext of autonomy not to carry out investigations following allegations made on the operation of some councils, such as in Gozo.

Concluding, Dr Cardona called for updating of the Local Councils Act. He said the opposition would participate in an exercise to revamp the law. For example, the way the Local Councils Association was constituted should be changed and should reflect the votes cast in local council elections.

There was need to improve the system of local enforcement because a legal loophole was allowing too many people to get away without paying fines imposed by wardens. A reform was also needed with regard to the employment of council secretaries.

Local councils should not be turned into a political football match. They should be there only to improve people's lives, Dr Cardona concluded.