'Better coordination needed between bills, vouchers'

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech yesterday acknowledged in Parliament that better coordination was needed between the issuing of utility bills and of vouchers to help the most needy families. Last year there had been such a delay in the issuing of bills that vouchers despatched to help pay those bills had expired.

Answering a number of supplementary questions by opposition MPs, Minister Fenech also said that ARMS, the company entrusted with the sending and payment of the utility bills, would soon have a new outlet in Valletta after it had lost its earlier one to the City Gate project.

Mr Fenech said that the company's call centre was manned by eight people around the clock, but the system was sometimes effectively blocked by people calling for a variety of reasons other than those for which the centre was operational.

He acknowledged it would amount to an administrative error if the late arrival of a voucher meant the late payment of a bill which in turn attracted a financial penalty.