Under the presidency of George Abela there were many initiatives to set the ball rolling for constitutional reform. That momentum vanished into thin air. If reform does not materialise when there is a strong national debate, by default it gets placed on the back-burner. The same situation may unfold in the field of local government reform.

In the coming days the government will be passing a Bill through Parliament as part of the local government reform. Last year was the 25th year from the inception of local councils in Malta. It would have been more appropriate had the legal amendments been finalised last year when the Nationalist Opposition presented 80 proposals.

The signs are that the government wants to strengthen the regional councils, rather ironic when one recalls the criticism Chris Said had received from the Labour Party, then in Opposition, on the introduction of regional government.

One area in this respect where I believe the White Paper has gone too far is in placing the waste collection contracts in the hands of the regions.

It may make sense to have tenders issued by the regions, but the management and drafting of the contracts of waste collection need to remain in the hands of local councils.

Residents will call councils to complain about a bad service, there therefore needs to be a contractual relationship between the council and the contractor, otherwise it will be impossible to address such complaints.  

One area where I support a bigger role for the regions is in relation to professional services for local councils. It doesn’t make sense for say, Sliema and Gżira to engage their own lawyers for issues related to planning when there could be one lawyer engaged by the region who would service each council in the region.

Both the government White Paper and the Opposition proposals have an entire chapter on the need to have councils more involved in the social needs of our localities. I fully concur with this view as we cannot have councils simply for pavements and garbage collection if they are to be of significant help to improving the quality of life of residents.

Social needs cannot be project related, but need to be addressed in an ongoing fashion with an annual budget

The government’s approach to the matter seems to be to have one-off sporadic funding mechanisms. Social needs cannot be project related, but need to be addressed in an ongoing fashion with an annual budget which allows councils to plan yearly initiatives.

Again, here we risk disincentivising councils if the money for social policy will be given to the regions. The 8th Schedule of the Local Councils Act contains the formula on which the councils’ budgets are calculated.

The budget is divided under four headings: parks and gardens, maintenance of roads, collection of waste and administration. Under none of these four headings is there any means of financing for social projects. It is high time for a fifth heading, that of ‘Social Needs’. Unless Parliamentary Secretary Silvio Parnis introduces a fifth heading for social initiatives in the formula, the proposals will remain a utopic vision on paper. 

Other areas need to be addressed in relation to financing. At present the Sliema council’s budget for the sweeping of streets allows us to sweep streets a maximum of twice a week, when certain streets with heavy pedestrian use require sweeping twice a day.

When it comes to finances, Malta has ratified the European Charter of Local Self Government of the Council of Europe. From the compulsory list Malta has never incorporated Article 9.3 into our legislation which deals with the transfer of local taxation to local authorities.

One need not introduce a new tax for such a system. All we need to do is transfer existing taxes, such as the tourist tax to local authorities. It is useless having veteran hoteliers moaning about the lack of cleanliness when in a locality like Sliema the budget only allows the council a twice- a-week street sweeping.

Other innovative forms of funding should be looked into, such as tax rebates or other fiscal incentives for private companies donating CSR funding to council projects, as well as crowdfunding which needs a regulatory framework.

The government is well-placed to give councils the tools needed for the next 25 years following the momentum of the past months with proposals from the Opposition, academia, council representatives, the department and others. The reform though has to go beyond the legislative amendments and needs to see other ongoing initiatives in relation to what happens in practice.

Paul Radmilli is a Nationalist Party candidate for the Sliema local council.

This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece