Going by Joseph Muscat’s euphoric blitz about Malta’s economic miracle and about how well his government delivers on all matters promised before the last election, one may easily get the impression that everything works according to the book.
Engrossed as he is in electoral buzzwords, clichés and sheer bombast, the Labour leader rarely gives the flip side and when he does he is either greatly selective or only deals with the country’s problems ever so lightly.
Alternatively, as is more likely the case, he conveniently blames the Nationalists. He has refined his propagandistic tactics to perfection.
To be fair, some of the problems are inherited from one administration to another and are, therefore, hard to solve. One of these is lack of adequate administrative controls in the public service or what the Auditor General has colourfully described at a House Pubic Accounts Committee meeting as the happy-go-lucky attitude prevalent in the service.
The problem is, of course, also found in some state agencies and corporations and, to a lesser extent today, in some parts of the private sector too. The issue was raised when the Public Accounts Committee discussed the National Audit Office’s report on general expenditure and personal emoluments of the contracts department. However, as the annual reports by the Auditor General have shown over the years, lax control problems are common to most government departments.
The Auditor General has repeatedly made the point that departments deliver well in their core operations but there are still big administrative deficiencies in internal control. This often means waste of public money, a matter that ought to receive ministerial attention all the time.
It all boils down to lack of accountability. The individual, says Auditor General Charles Deguara, has to be accountable for all he does. For good reasons, the Auditor does not go into the political aspects of the issue but part of the problem lies in the political influence some of the public officials carry in their posts, particularly – but by no means exclusively so – by the many employed as persons of trust.
If these are regarded as untouchables and are wont to do things their way, as against the way they are expected to in the public service, the example they set is usually one of nonchalance. Despite the Prime Minister’s protestations to the contrary, the public service shows increasing signs of bloating when, with the introduction of services online, its size (excluding the health and education sectors) should have been getting leaner, not bigger.
The Auditor General is making a strong case for the introduction of accrual accounting but it looks as if, despite the fact that there is a political commitment for its introduction, it is not making headway.
If, as the Auditor says, accrual is better than the cash-based system because it gives a real-time picture of the financial situation of the departments, the administration ought to get on with the job of introducing it.
The government and the Auditor General are known to be taking steps to bring about greater administrative control. The chairman of the Public Accounts Committee has also reported that the issues raised were in the process of being remedied.
The taxpayer expects accountability all the time.