MCESD members are this morning discussing proposals to reform the way businesses are inspected in a bid to decrease the bureaucratic burden and wasted hours.

“Some 70,000 inspections are carried out every year, and there have even been instances when a business had six inspections in one day,” principal permanent secretary Mario Cutajar said.

He was speaking at the first meeting of consultation on the reform, where Helena Dalli, the minister responsible for the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development said bureaucracy could limit competition and efficiency.

Moira Attard, who has been involved in the drafting of the white paper, explained that there are 24 inspection entities.

The burden of these inspections on businesses is equivalent to €1.7 million and 50,000 man hours.

Among others, she mentioned that relying on criminal sanctions when it came to enforcement was rendering the system inefficient. Another drawback was lack of data sharing between entities, so businesses were being asked for the same information during different inspections.

Consultation on the white paper was launched online yesterday. Feedback can be submitted until October 30 here.