Justice Minister Owen Bonnici this afternoon launched a scheme that will help local councils fund capital projects.

A selection board, within the Justice Ministry, will be tasked to select which projects will benefit from the €1m fund. The board will give preference to sustainable projects.

The amount given to individual projects will not be capped  but there will not be a situation where all the money will go to one project, the minister said. The government intends to have such a fund every year

Dr Bonnici said that the government inherited a local council system with €22 million debt, mainly due to the way the previous Nationalist government allocated  funds among localities resulting in some incurring hefty debts.

This, he said, was a point often raised by the Auditor General.

Parliamentary Secretary Stefan Buontempo said the Auditor General had said that such a system created white elephants - projects that started and could never continue.

"The time for amateurism is over," he said adding it was time to improve planning.

Councils are to submit their proposals to the ministry by January 30. Proposals are to include ways the project can be funded by various sources, apart from the fund, including private funds.