There is a sequel to the recent news from Brussels that Malta has become a laggard in the management of European Union funds. According to the Parliamentary Secretary for EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds, Ian Borg, no fewer than 53 projects costing some €590 million, were behind schedule and about €190 million in EU funds risked being lost.
Why has the situation been allowed to deteriorate to this extent? Should not Malta’s representation in Brussels, as well as the Office of the Prime Minister, have regularly monitored the programme to ensure that the projects that had been approved for funding would not fall behind?
If this is not a correct reading of the situation, is it not about time for a representative of the previous government to come out with the correct version?
Dr Borg gave the facts and figures when he toured the construction site of the new oncology centre being built next to Mater Dei Hospital.
According to him, work on the building of the new hospital for cancer patients has also fallen behind schedule though he said it would still be completed by the target date, which is the second quarter of next year.
The EU is contributing €44 million towards the project and it has now been learned that it would be costing €6 million below the projected €60 million. It will be interesting to learn how the reduction has been brought about.
Days following the news that Malta has fallen behind in the utilisation of EU funds, Dr Borg also made it known that the island does not have a structure to guide government departments, NGOs and private companies on the way to implement EU-funded projects. This is another surprise in the context of the structural links Malta has been gradually establishing with the EU since it joined the bloc.
It has been said that Malta Enterprise and the Planning and Priorities Coordination Division were very helpful when it came to guiding companies and organisations to apply for funds. However, according to Dr Borg, once the funds were approved, the beneficiaries were left alone to wade through the “sea of bureaucracy and regulations”.
Now that the situation has been quantified and that the European Commission has given Malta its due warning, what is being done to organise the management of the programme on a professional basis?
Dr Borg said his secretariat, in collaboration with the ministries, was working to reach implementation targets so that no funds would be lost.
This is the least expected of the government but who is going to help out the other beneficiaries? Would it, therefore, not be wise as well for the secretariat to see to the setting up of an infrastructure that would help non-government organisations?
What is not understood in this whole issue is the way Malta has come to fall so much behind when it was considered as one of the best performers up to only four years ago.
Again, it would seem that the major fault lay in the failure on the part of whoever was concerned to monitor progress in the implementation of the programme. Malta has managed to get only 30 per cent of the EU funds allocated for projects. Would it not be a pity if, through further organisational delay in the management of the projects, Malta was to lose all or part of the money earmarked?