The annual report on the workings of Local Government for the year 202 has been presented today by the Auditor General, Mr Charles Deguara, to the Speaker of the House of Anglu Farrugia.

“Once again, besides the Local Councils Association, this year only around 30% of the Councils submitted their audited accounts by the established deadline of end June 2022,” the Office of the Auditor General said.

By mid-November, that is, when this report was ready for publication, the NAO said that unfortunately, sixteen Local Councils, including from Gozo – Kercem and Qala, as well as the Gozo Regional Council, had not yet submitted their audited accounts to Auditor General’s Office.

In Malta, the Local Councils are – Birgu, Birkirkara, Fgura, Floriana, Gzira, Hamrun, Luqa, Mosta, Qormi, San Giljan, Sliema, Swieqi and Valletta.

The Office noted that other Councils submitted them by the time the report was being finalised. Within this context, the Auditor General urged authorities to “address this deteriorating situation as urgently as possible.”

On the other hand, the NAO satisfactorily noted the efforts on the part of the Administration to ensure that the Local Councils in Malta and Gozo are given the necessary support to achieve their goals. As a result, certain Councils have registered considerable progress, it said.

Nevertheless, the NAO remarked that “not all Councils gave their full commitment and collaborated in the best way possible with the Local Government Auditors. Very often this resulted in substantial delays to finalise the respective audits.”

The NAO also recognised that there is “still room for improvement in certain specific areas, due to the fact that some deficiencies have been repeatedly reported on in previous years.”

“Prevailing issues relate to inadequate management of fixed assets and accounting records that were not always duly updated,” it said.

Other concerns highlighted by the NAO included:

the audit reports of another thirty-six Local Authorities were qualified with an ‘Except For’ audit opinion, meaning that certain areas could not be audited due to insufficient supporting evidence;

nine Local Authorities failed to submit their response to the management letter by mid-November 2022; and

inappropriate financial planning, whereby monies were not utilised efficiently and economically, resulting in either budget overruns or excessive savings of funds.

The full report can be viewed by clicking here.

File photo: Gozo News/Alain Salvary

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