Nationalist MP Ċensu Galea has called on the Local Councils Department to be more vigilant over procurement by local councils and the contracts they awarded, by overseeing the processes more closely to see to it that everything was being done properly.
Referring to the management of roads and pavements, he said it was very difficult to keep up with the necessities of all the roads in a locality with the budgets given to the councils.
However, it was not true that public-private partnerships were inefficient because the projects finished earlier than estimated for the benefit of all residents.
He said he agreed with giving the vote to 16-year-olds but one had to ensure that they were properly prepared for the task.
Toni Bezzina (PN) said giving youths the franchise was positive but giving them the necessary space also meant mounting an informative and educational campaign.
Successive Nationalist administrations had strengthened the concept of subsidiarity to a point where they were entrenched in the Constitution as part of the chain of governance.
However, he questioned the government’s policy in the light of a drop in funding. To offset this, one must look at other avenues of revenue, including shared taxation, he suggested.
Former Gozo minister Giovanna Debono said that besides giving more rights to young people, the Bill would also be benefitting society as a whole since youth had so much to offer.
The PN’s decision to introduce local councils had been a very good and fruitful one.
Creating the Gozo Ministry had greatly helped to improve the overall environmental, economic, social and cultural situations of that island. It had financed a number of projects through the Eco-Gozo scheme implemented by local councils.
However, she had received complaints that the assistance given by the Gozo Ministry was not the same as that afforded by the previous administration. She urged the government to look into this and improve it.
Antoine Borg (PN) said it was positive that both parties were encouraging a wider spread of people to participate in local council elections. But the government needed to guide and continuously support local councils.
The unit set up at MUESEC by the previous government to help local councils apply for EU funds had helped avoid consultancy and professional fees. Local councils had benefitted from more than €18 million in such funding, which had seen 63 projects being realised.
Unfortunately most local councils lacked human resources and knowledge about regulations to properly manage these funds.
Mr Borg proposed that the government employ an EU fund administrator on a regional committee basis to help local councils administer the funds.
He also urged the government to allocate more EU funds to local councils.