Councils told not to assume extra powers

The Ministry for Justice and Home Affairs yesterday made it clear that although local councils were autonomous, no meeting of the Local Councils' Association or of the mayors can assume powers the law does not grant them.

The ministry was replying to a statement issued by the Local Councils' Association insisting that any directive to councils had to be issued by the association after an agreement is reached by the mayors in a meeting called by the association.

The whole issue centres on the fact that the director of the Department of Local Councils had instructed the councils to extend their contracts with executive secretaries by another year, to four years.

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin and the Association of Local Councils Executive Secretaries (ASKLM) said the directive was not an intrusion on the autonomy of local councils.

The UHM and the ASKLM said the directive had been agreed with the Local Councils' Association in a meeting with the Minister for Home Affairs Tonio Borg and the association's president Ian Micallef.