Staff shortage delays paedophile register

Plans for a paedophile register have to be delayed as the Children's Commissioner struggles to deal with a growing workload and lack of staff.

Commissioner Carmen Zammit said the register "is of enormous priority" to her but she and her staff had no time to work on it over the past months because their time was taken up by other pressing matters.

The Social Policy Ministry acknowledged that lack of staff was a problem, adding that it was working to address the situation.

"The lack of human resources is not only a problem faced by the Children's Commissioner but is a problem faced by various entities within this ministry," a spokesman said.

Besides Ms Zammit, her office has a full-time administrator and a manager who helps her deal with projects and paperwork. Her office then "buys" hourly services of clerks or complaint officers when needed. By March she is hoping to employ another full-time manager to help with the workload, but even that will not be enough to cope.

"The office needs to grow. This staff is not enough. The workload is increasing and a lot needs to be done in many sectors when it comes to children. The office needs more staff," said Ms Zammit, whose term as Children's Commissioner expires at the end of this year.

Ms Zammit's predecessor, Sonia Camilleri, who was the first Children's Commissioner, had also complained about lack of resources.

Last October, Ms Zammit said she was working on a paedophile register and had started consultations with the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children to examine how other countries implement the register.

A panel of local experts from various spheres connected to child welfare was meant to convene at the beginning of this year to start discussing the technicalities and look into the best way of introducing the register. But the panel has not yet been set up because her office has not had the time to work on it.

The time of employees was taken up with replying to documents received from the EU dealing with complaints and cases of children who "are going through tough times".

The office is working on research on residential care that should pave the way for a national policy on dealing with children who are not looked after by their parents. The project is in its third phase of data collection and, Ms Zammit said, it is hoped the report would be finished by October.

She still hopes to be able to set the ball rolling for the introduction of the paedophile register before her term ends this year.

The Children's Commissioner's office was set up in 2003 to promote the welfare of children. The idea of introducing a sex offenders' register was raised in mid-2006 following a controversy involving the Malta Football Association, which retained a 79-year-old convicted paedophile as a groundsman in Paola at a football pitch which at the time doubled as a playing field for a nearby school.