When there are so many reports and allegations of corruption, sleaze and money laundering, some involving even people at the very top of the country’s administration, the kind of shortcomings flagged by the Auditor General in a report on local councils may seem somewhat trivial and inconsequential.
Against an ever-widening panorama of incorrect administrative and political behaviour, it is not surprising that many are apt to disregard maladministration down the line, not just in the government service but also in all its corporations and agencies. There is marked evidence today that such behaviour is breaking down the culture of responsibility, breeding outright indifference to rules and regulations as well as arrogance and hubris.
Unless an effort is made to check the trend, the problem is likely to worsen. The government finds itself in a disadvantage of its own making as it is ignoring what ought to be considered basic norms in political responsibility, as shown by the resistance of two Cabinet ministers, Konrad Mizzi and Evarist Bartolo, and the Prime Minister’s own chief of staff, Keith Schembri, to resign for reasons that call for censure.
The Auditor General has already expressed concern at what he described as the happy-go-lucky attitude in the civil service. This has also been generally evident at local councils. In the latest report by the National Audit Office on the workings of local councils, that for last year, the office once again flags practices that are not in line with set regulations and could give rise to abuse.
Overspending is one shortcoming that features in many audit reports, giving rise to the same old argument about lack of inadequate internal controls. The Audit Office questions certain procedures related to commitments abroad even when a significant expense was incurred from the councils’ coffers. In certain cases, they did not even bother to submit a report on such visits abroad.
These and other cases suggest indifference to good administration and, once again, raise the issue as to whether the country ought to have as many local councils as there are today - 68. Many rightly feel the island has far too many and that it is time for all stakeholders to get together and see how, given the small size of the island, these could be reduced to a more reasonable number.
The president of the Local Councils’ Association, Marc Sant, put it well when he said, some time ago, that, while subsidiarity was a nice concept and the people may enjoy the sense of immediacy (presumably in the tackling of community affairs) that a local council may inspire among them, excessive fragmentation needed to be addressed. He had asked if the time had come to divide the country into regions or areas that would correspond to electoral districts.
This makes a lot of sense but, since such excessive administrative fragmentation does not seem to bother the two main political parties unduly, it is hard, if not impossible, to push for any meaningful reform. In the circumstances, the least that can be done is to work for greater administrative discipline. The problem is that for this to come about there has first to be a proper sense of good governance at the top of the administration, which is at present lacking in good measure.
This is a Times of Malta print editorial