The Local Governance Board has called for a change to the law enabling it to recommend the dissolution of a council. The recommendation was made in a report on an investigation it conducted on the Żabbar local council which, among other things, looked into the fact that councillors had not met since February.

According to law, councillors who miss four consecutive meetings or cumulatively miss a third of meetings called over a six-month period should be reported to the responsible minister. If the absence was not justified, the minister should declare the post vacant and a casual election carried out to fill the vacancy.

At Żabbar, this did not happen in the case of Labour councillors who failed to attend meetings, ostensibly because of a conflict with former mayor Quinton Scerri.

The board recommended that, in view of prevailing circumstances and what had happened in Żabbar, the councillors in question would be asked for a written declaration justifying their absence.

In addition, the board wants to have the power to recommend a council’s dissolution.

The law as it stands now only gives such power to the President, acting on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, and only based on a report of the Auditor General for persistent breach of financial responsibilities, persistent breach of the law governing councils, lack of agreement in electing the mayor, lack of agreement by the council in approving its annual estimates or a recommendation to that effect in a report by a board appointed under the Inquiries Act.