A watchdog tasked with assessing the implementation of fiscal and economic policy objectives has urged the Finance Ministry to provide a more detailed account of European Union fund absorption.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna on Budget Day.

In a letter sent on October 8 to Finance Minister Edward Scicluna, the chairman of the Malta Fiscal Advisory Council, John Cassar White, said the information on EU fund absorption provided in the ministry’s half-yearly report “falls short of the precise details being prescribed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act”.

He urged the ministry to provide more detailed information in its future reports.

As part of the assessment of the ministry’s half-yearly report, the advisory council said it was important that the government’s fiscal balance remained in surplus at a time when the economy was experiencing benign macroeconomic conditions.

It drew attention to the fact that, during the first six months of this year, the percentage of the overall budget utilised for capital expenditure was rather low in comparison to the estimate for the full year.

The council said the various departments should make sure that the full set of information about their outstanding creditors was submitted to the Finance Ministry in time to validate the data and compile the half-yearly reports.

It acknowledged that, for logistic reasons, it was not always possible for the ministry to compile and table the half-yearly report in Parliament by July.

For the half-yearly report to attain its objective of boosting transparency and fiscal governance, it was important that its publication was not delayed to the extent that it preceded the publication of the draft budgetary plan and the Budget speech only by a very brief period, the council remarked.

The council said the Finance Minister should remain vigilant to ensure that the fiscal performance in the second half of the year, which was expected to be more positive than in the first half, contributed to the planned fiscal surplus for 2018.

The fiscal advisory council noted that the 2018 targets for the fiscal surplus and public debt were confirmed at 1.1 per cent and 45.8 per cent of GDP, unchanged from the April forecast round.