I had the pleasure recently of attending and addressing a conference and peer review session in Kiev on municipal cooperation and municipal amalgamation. The conference was organised by the Ukrainian government in collaboration with the European Committee on Democracy and Governance within the Council of Europe as part of a reform process spearheaded by the Ukrainian Government. It was attended by a number of CoE member states including Albania, Austria, Belgium, Latvia, Norway, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
All representatives were requested to provide their country’s experiences in similar reform exercises. In this context, I made it a point to attend and share our own experiences. I also wanted to have the opportunity to listen to current trends in local governance reforms undertaken by a number of European countries and understand and, thus, appreciate the rationale for such reforms.
Sharing knowledge and experiences is crucial for regeneration. As are the individual components of consultation and independent advice. These ingredients, together with the political will of this government, will pave the way to a fresh and updated system of local and regional governance in Malta.
From the first day I was given the portfolio of local governance, I immediately started working on a strategic approach for regeneration, based on the aforementioned elements and with the firm intention of being as holistic as possible in my endeavour. During my years of shadowing local councils, I had come to notice that although the impression was that these were high on the then government’s agenda, improvement initiatives were very sporadic, interventions very piecemeal in nature, did not follow a congruent directional pattern or path and most of the time seemed to be dictated by circumstances rather than by a proper need.
This, in my opinion, was mainly due to a hazy, at times even confused, political vision on what was intended to be achieved. I was and am adamant not to let this happen under my guard.
Therefore, my approach was as follows: immediate attention was given to the importance of meeting and discussing concerns with the various local councils, something I did over the last months and which provided me with a very good snapshot of their situation.
In parallel, I needed to understand what are the views of the residents on the performances of their local councils and we therefore commissioned the National Statistics Office to carry out a perception survey, the results of which have just been passed over to my office.
Also, I needed to understand what kind of working relationships exist within local councils, working relationships between councillors, between the mayor and councillors, between councillors and local council staff, between the mayor and the executive secretary.
In my opinion, this is key to the provision of good service, to efficiency and to accountability.
I also wanted to have the individual opinions of the elected and administrative staff of the local councils on the current status of governance at a local level, what is their vision, what are their expectations, what suggestions would they put forward to improve local government.
A survey to this effect has also been carried out by an international expert selected by the Centre of Expertise for Democracy and Governance Reform within the Council of Europe.
Sharing knowledge and experiences is crucial for regeneration
The crude data are in hand, however, the expert is drafting his report, which will link the survey carried out among the residents with that among the elected and administrative staff of local councils, which report is about to be submitted to my office.
Other important elements I feel need a thorough assessment and on which we are also working are the following.
The Local Councils Act in its entirety; its relevance and effectiveness in dealing with current and potential challenges. Another expert proposed by the Centre of Expertise of the Council of Europe has been engaged and will be working together with a team of local lawyers that have been identified by the Local Councils Association. These will review the law and make recommendations on possible amendments.
Modes of training: at present training is very peripheral to the core functions of local councils. A short introductory course on local governance is provided to the executive secretaries once engaged, however, the course in itself is too general and unfocused.
Moreover, training is only envisaged for executive secretaries. This is also about to drastically change. For the first time, a diploma in public management and governance at local level has been designed and its accreditation at European Qualification Framework (EQF) level 5 has just been approved by the National Commission for Higher and Further Education (NCHFE).
The course is composed of eight modules that will cover all aspects of local council business. The course is open to all local council and regional committees executive secretaries. Moreover, in collaboration with the Centre of Expertise, a training needs analyses is being undertaken that will lead to a national training strategy that will cater also for the training needs of other local council staff members and, more importantly, for elected representatives.
Performance management tools; these, to date, are still inexistent even though this function is statutory in nature. A pilot project involving 12 local councils has been launched, whereby an agreed set of performance tools, based on the performance management toolkit of the Centre of Expertise for Democracy and Governance Reform will be introduced in these local councils. This exercise will be monitored by another expert from the same Centre of Expertise. Representatives from the 12 local councils will be travelling to Norway for a week-long training stage with a number of Norwegian local authorities.
Better business processes for more efficient and effective councils: business processes need to be revamped. The current systems are inadequate and outdated. In this respect, the Department for Local Government, in collaboration with my parliamentary secretariat, has just submitted a project to be part financed by the European Union that intends to review processes and propose new and/or updated versions. Feedback as to whether the project will be selected for funding or not is expected shortly.
The Department for Local Government: it plays a crucial role in the success or failure of all the initiatives that have been spelt out. All these initiatives have been thought over and drafted together with the department and their implementation falls within its responsibility. It is also important to note that, for all these regeneration initiatives, external funding (European Social Fund and the Norway Funding Mechanism) has been secured over a period of time.
Moreover, the department needs to be reorganised in a way as to be much more responsive to local and regional needs and to offer much-needed support to the administrative arms of the same councils.
This reorganisation exercise has been tasked to the Management and Efficiency Unit within the public service, which has taken stock of the current situation and is in the process of drafting the necessary recommendations for an adjourned and improved department.
This thorough, multi-levelled, analytical and comprehensive research exercise will be finalised in less than a year’s time (at the moment we are ahead of schedule) and will provide a strong basis for the necessary regeneration process of our communities’ governance systems. I call it the initiation of a silent revolution to which everyone is invited to contribute. Contrary to many in the past, I let my actions speak rather than my rhetoric.
Stefan Buontempo is Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government.