Nationalist MP calls on the government to revisit amendments

Nationalist MP Edwin Vassallo yesterday called on the government to revisit the proposed amendments to the Local Councils Act to ensure that citizens could be given a better service.

He praised the government for introducing local councils based on the principles of decentralisation and subsidiarity and said that the opposition accepted local councils out of convenience.

Decentralisation had led to the introduction of local governments. Local councils could not do what they liked but had to work in synergy with the national government.

Mr Vassallo said the Bill should not permit that any mayor or counsellor do whatever he liked. It should provide guidelines on what one should expect from local councils.

No council should be allowed to refuse the national waste separation policy.

He asked whether citizens had been given value for money for the investment that the government made into local councils over the past 15 years. There was the need to strengthen governability in the interest of the clients and not of the providers. Did the Bill address the efficiency of local councils?

The Bill had to be amended so that the executive secretary had to shoulder the same responsibilities as a director in the civil service. Inefficiencies had to be addressed and the law had to give direction to councils to be less bureaucratic and more efficient.

Labour MP Evarist Bartolo said that next Saturday voters should not abstain because through that election process they would be making known their assessment on the performance of local councils and the European Parliament.

Local councils often had to solve problems in the locality when they had no control over the issue. It was right to increase functions to local councils but they had to be given the necessary resources. Mr Bartolo said that many local councils were at a disadvantage with certain people who, for political reasons, had personal contacts with high ranking officials through patronage. These councils had to wait for years to be issued with permits. Modern democracy was not built on patronage.

Councils had to be given the administrative authority to be effective if the government intended to increase their functions and responsibilities. Otherwise people would be dissatisfied.

He said the philosophy behind the Bill was that where the local council could not function effectively the government would intervene, when often it was the other way round.

The government boasted about its IT systems and Malta being a "smart" island. Reality in government departments showed the contrary as many administrations were still paper-based. Results had to be measured through the provision of a better service. It was unjust to expect local councils to be efficient and effective when the central administrative structure was at fault. In many aspects, the central government was not the correct model to be imitated by local councils.

Mr Bartolo concluded that trust in local councils depended on government resources. Much of the good work in Malta was the result of voluntary work.

Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami said that 15 years ago the government had wanted to pass on some of its power to councils but the opposition had been against their setting up and had described them as a tool for the government to shift responsibility. Another controversy which had cropped up at the time was on the participation of political parties.

The PN had insisted it had a right to contest and it was its duty to do so. Labour refused to contest officially and its candidates used to be listed as independents.

Councils had now been accepted by the Labour Party and it was presenting its candidates to be elected. But was it doing so out of conviction or because it was convenient to do so? he asked.

Dr Fenech Adami recalled that five years ago Labour had also campaigned against EU membership. It had said that the government would not get more than Lm1.5 million from the EU. But the central government had already managed to get over €1 billion.

Local councils had also realised the EU was an opportunity and managed to exploit membership to their benefit taking part in several programmes and getting a substantial amount of funds. The Għarb local council had managed to get €1.5 million in funds from the EU.

Dr Fenech Adami said that, when one went to vote on Saturday, one should remember which was the party that had led to all this.

He gave a list of works which had been carried out by two councils in the eighth electoral district which he contested, namely Birkirkara and Lija.

Labour MP Chris Cardona said that councils in Malta were a success story, independent of their evolution. Ideas changed and improved and the two main parties agreed that councils were a successful experiment.

Their evolution had been continuous and, while some councils had flourished, others had not. There were mayors and councillors hailing from both parties who were very successful and others who were not.

Chris Said had been one of the successful mayors and it was positive that as soon as he took on the job of Parliamentary Secretary he embarked on a wide consultation exercise with councils before proposing the reform.

This consultation had worked and councillors and mayors were satisfied with it.

It seemed there was agreement on a lot of the principles which led to this reform. One of the most critical points made by the opposition was that, in contradiction to what the government used to say, there had been instances where the autonomy of councils was reduced, rather than increased.

Dr Cardona said the PL could not be accused of being against local councils because it enjoyed a majority in the number of councils and in the association. A Labour government had strengthened local councils.

The Bill aimed at reducing the devolutionary powers of councils. These were being assumed by the Prime Minister as the minister responsible for local councils. Instead of decentralising further the Prime Minsiter was being invested with more authority.

He said that it was unacceptable that Labour councils were facing serious problems with Mepa and the ADT in getting permits for new projects, when there were private persons who were granted permits without any problems at all for similar projects. Public officials in government departments were abusing their office and were systematically discriminating against Labour councils. The parameters had to be the same for every council irrespective of who had the majority.

Dr Cardona said that the minister responsible for local councils in the previous legislature had opposed Labour proposals for the setting up of a government expert committee to provide assistance to councils when applying for EU funds. As a result, the country had lost millions of euros in funds. This proposal was now brought forward by the government in this Bill.

On enforcement, he said that a balance had to be struck in a system which educated people while enforcing the law. The system used today led to confusion. One had to imitate the enforcement systems adopted in Scandinavian countries.

Local councils had to give greater importance to the social and housing aspects as was being advocated by the opposition. The proposal on administrative committees for hamlets had to be reconsidered neither to create smaller councils within other councils nor to increase bureaucracy. Financial allocations to these committees might lead to duplication of work.

Concluding, Dr Cardona said the setting up of a pool of executive secretaries would undermine the autonomy of local councils.