Good governance and accountability

The editorial entitled Glaring Anomaly (February 15) captures in a nutshell the very conspicuous irrationality in the relationship between the elective (mayors and councillors) and the executive (the executive secretaries) in local councils and the lack of accountability in some councils.

The government is in total agreement with the Ombudsman that "although a council employee, an executive secretary is not however subservient to the council. While an executive secretary is responsible for an efficient implementation of the council's legitimate decisions, a person holding this post also serves as a watchdog of the council's activities and has to ensure good governance and proper administration and to ascertain that the mayor and councillors observe financial and administrative procedures". This was confirmed long before the Ombudsman published his report by Tonio Borg, Deputy Prime Minister and minister responsible for local government, in his address to mayors of the Maltese islands during the annual general meeting of the Local Councils Association held in Gozo earlier this year.

The Labour Party, however, does not agree. Their opinions, declarations and publications on this matter are diametrically opposed to those of the Ombudsman.

The issue of the role of the executive secretary has been brewing for some time, and has come to the fore because of incidents that have taken place recently. Some councils on both sides of the political spectrum have opted not to renew their executive secretaries' contract of employment, citing, in some cases, incompatibility with the mayor. One particular council has had an unprecedented turnover of 14 executive secretaries in the past nine or 10 years. I have personally witnessed how the Labour majority in Pietà tried to terminate the executive secretary's employment in mid-term when they were elected to power and are brazenly harassing him and trying to intimidate him to this day.

Chris Cardona, the Labour spokesman for local councils, justified such action by declaring that executive secretaries are political appointees. Labour are of the opinion that the executive secretary is nothing more than the mayor's personal assistant and that if for some reason the mayor feels he is unable to get along with the executive secretary because the executive secretary is doing his job or because he does not support Labour, then the executive secretary is expendable.

Neither the word nor the spirit of the law allows this. The executive secretary has an important function in local councils. The elected members are the political decision makers and the executive secretary implements the council's policies and political decisions, provided that such policies and political decisions adhere to the laws and regulations that govern local councils. Accordingly, the executive secretary is not just the person who records the minutes of the councils' meetings, but also the person who advises the council on whether or not its decisions will fit within the prevailing legal framework.

There are times when the council and the executive secretary disagree, like when the council is dead set on doing something that, in the executive secretary's opinion, is not permissible. However, a good executive secretary will find the best way how to tactfully and ingeniously fulfil the council's wishes in a way that is acceptable to the council and is above board.

Labour clearly does not want this. Labour wants to surround themselves with yes men: people who support their decisions without question and who are answerable to their Board of Vigilance.

The question is whether or not Labour will back down from their position and bow their head to the Ombudsman's and the Auditor General's findings and recommendations. It is only logical that they should do this since they always feigned shock and outrage whenever the government and the Ombudsman did not see eye to eye in the recent past. Labour should get off their high horse and realise it is in the national interest that the executive secretary is not hindered from ensuring that all the checks and balances envisaged by the law are adhered to.

The shortcomings revealed in the Auditor General's report undeniably show that all is not well with certain local councils' finances. Look at what happened and is still happening in Zebbug (Malta), where there was an exceptional turnover of mayors, mainly because of the disastrous state of the council's finances. Labour's incompetent leadership allowed an unsustainable deficit to build up and residents of Zebbug are suffering the results thereof. And if Labour were scandalised with the NSO's amendments to statistics, they should have a look at the Luqa local council's financial accounts!

The ancient Romans had a tradition: whenever one of their engineers constructed an arch, as the capstone was hoisted into place, the engineer assumed accountability for his work in the most profound way possible: he stood under the arch. It is high time we followed suit.