Businesses are getting tied up in a web of bureaucracy as inspections by the taxman, health and safety officers and other watchdogs are costing them 50,000 hours every year, official figures show.
A consultative document on government inspections published by the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday, shows that the time employees are spending with watchdogs is costing businesses about €20 million annually.
To counter this expense, the government is suggesting setting up a centralised inspection agency that would bring all watchdogs under one roof. This would not only carry out inspections itself but also conduct studies on how to simplify the processes and help businesses come up with many solutions themselves.
The centralised agency is not the only option on the table. The consultation document in fact suggests setting up specialised bodies that would bring the 26 government agencies currently conducting inspections into five new departments. These would be specialised and group inspections into areas such as health, tax compliance and financial regulations.
The White Paper details how many inspections that could be carried out simultaneously are being split up across different entities taking longer than necessary.
Information compliance inspections, such as those carried out to ensure adequate labelling on products, for instance, are conducted by 16 different government departments despite being similar in nature.
This, the document says, could be streamlined because the checks are costing businesses about €1.7 million in wasted hours.
The White Paper also puts forward a third option that would allow the current inspection regime to remain fairly unchanged but would set up a coordination unit. This, it suggests, would facilitate the processes without having to rework the entire system.
The option would also see existing agencies having to draft a two-year in-house plan to simplify their own processes. About 103 pieces of legislation would need to be reviewed for the regrouping to be done and the government said this would form part of its pledge to cut bureaucracy by 25 per cent by the end of the legislature.
Price indication compliance (proper price tagging) checks are the most common inspections carried out, with about 11,800 made last year. These are followed by scheduled inspections on restaurants (6,300) and those based on environmental complaints (5,700).
The consultation is available on the Social Dialogue Ministry website at www.socialdialogue.gov.mt.
What comes out of all these checks?
Environmental Health Directorate
Over 33 tonnes of foodstuffs and kitchenware destroyed
27 food products recalled from the market
Eight premises closed for a period of time
19 food-related activities stopped
15 contraventions
Over €11,000 in fines
Government Property Division
95 eviction orders
Plant health
1,576 plant passports issued
741 palm trees destroyed; 596 were contaminated with palm weevil
186 notifications for infected tree removal
Occupational Health and Safety Authority
98 criminal cases
€52,000 in fines
17 cases of asbestos removed
Malta Competitiveness and Consumer Affairs Authority
197 clothing outlets warned for non-compliant pricing
227 outlets issued warnings over price tagging
Four court cases against businesses
Department for Industrial and Employment Relations
38 cases referred for legal action
85 monetary cases closed
Six employment agencies had their licence withdrawn
VAT Department
135 individuals found guilty of failure to issue receipts; they were collectively fined €136,000
80 individuals fined for not submitting tax returns
Customs Department
€338,038 collected in fines
Nine suspended sentences
Eight effective criminal sentences