Are all local councils being well run?

Hearing politicians speak about local councils, it is easy to get the impression that, with the exception of one or two, they are paragons of good local governance. Yet, nothing can be further from the truth, at least in the case of a good number of them. In fact, many people have very little positive to say about them.

It would seem that there is a chasm separating the people’s views about the councils and those of some politicians from the two main parties, with the latter seemingly unaware of the voters’ real feelings.

The difficulty does not lie in any shortage of ideas on what local councils should or should not do but in the fact that most of them are perceived – and many actually are – too politically minded. Many attribute the councils’ underlying problems to partisan politics, a matter that had been well predicted at the time they were first set up. Since it is most unlikely that the parties will now choose to divest themselves of their political interest in the councils, politicisation will continue to frustrate, in varying degrees, the councils’ work.

There is no denying that some councils have done well. But, for various reasons, more and more people are developing an attitude of mistrust in them, with many considering them simply as training grounds for aspiring politicians.

Party programmes rolled out for the councils ahead of the next round of elections on Saturday may have gone into all the details of the political parties’ expectations. On paper, the ideas or proposals look great but the people do not seem to be sharing the parties’ enthusiasm, at least judging by the many comments filed to this newspaper’s website, timesofmalta.com, a few days ago.

Never mind the endless political talk about the Mosta and Sliema local councils, the truth of the matter is that many feel disillusioned and let down by their own councils. Such a judgement would need to be well analysed and acted upon by the parties if they truly have the interest of the localities they represent at heart.

Beyond proposals that deal with the localities’ infrastructure or the enhancement or maintenance of play grounds, what particularly needs to be seriously looked into is the way the councils are run. It is this that ought to occupy the minds of the political parties most because the success of a council’s work is not measured by just how many roads a council has resurfaced or potholes filled in but by the way it has done its work.

Only a few days ago, it was announced that all the councils but one had submitted their management financial accounts for auditing within the stipulated time. According to the government, this was a first. But are not councils always expected to submit their accounts on time? If submitting accounts on time is regarded as an achievement, there is something intrinsically wrong with the running of the councils. In fact, there is, as shown by the remarks made by the Auditor General in his report for 2010. One totally unacceptable practice, for example, is the non-abidance of procurement procedures.

It is these matters that the parties ought to tackle first if they want to see the councils play a vital role in the running of their localities.

It is also this that the voters should, and probably would, keep in mind when casting their vote this Saturday. Their choices are crucial.