Inspections which cost businesses hundreds of thousands of working hours every year will be streamlined thanks to a reform launched earlier this year, Principal
Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar announced today.

Addressing a press conference, Mr Cutajar said the government had passed a law last month which had set up a new coordinating office for the 24 inspectorates that keep an eye on local businesses.

The office would streamline inspections in a bid to ease the burden these have on places of work.

Around 70,000 inspections are carried out on businesses every year, and Mr Cutajar said research carried out before the reform had identified a number of ‘horror stories’.

“We had one business that had six inspections in one day for instance, can you imagine how difficult it can be to do business like that?” he said.

Mr Cutajar did not say by how much the reform hoped to reduce inspections, but did say that a pilot project carried out had shown very positive results.

The project, carried out last year, had seen the inspections carried out on pet shops reduced from six to just one. Butchers, he added, had seen inspections drop by two-thirds.

“This gives an indication of the reductions we are hoping to achieve,” he said.
Economy Minister Chris Cardona also addressed the press conference, saying a review of 16 inspectorates, had revealed these had a €1.7million burden on the tax payers.

“So we are not only hoping to reduce bureaucracy but also lowering the cost these inspections have on the country,” he said.

The coordinating office will be based with the Permanent Secretary for Strategy and Implementation within the Office of the Prime Minister. Joanne Farrugia will head the endeavour.