The new Public Administra-tion Bill is intended to

dramatically improve the efficiency, accountability and responsibility of the public service and at the same time reduce excess bureaucracy and red tape, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said

yesterday.

Launching the document, Dr Gonzi said the bill was a far cry from the original White Paper published in late October 2003 due to several changes that have been introduced to make it better and more comprehensive. He said the new bill included recommendations, comments and feedback received during the consultation period after the White Paper was launched.

Dr Gonzi said comments had been received from various unions, constituted bodies, voluntary organisations, public officials and the Public Service Commission, which was actively involved in the drawing up of the new bill. Even the bill’s name had been changed, from the “Public Service Bill” to the “Public Administration Bill”.

The Prime Minister said the bill would be discussed in parliament in the coming months and he expressed the hope that, by the end of the year, it would have been debated and agreed upon and could come into effect at the beginning of next year.

He said that, just as when parliament had discussed the new Employers and Industrial Relations Act, he hoped the social partners and the party in opposition would be involved in the discussions in order to fine-tune the bill before it was enacted.

Dr Gonzi said that since October 2003, the government has introduced various measures aimed at improving the quality of the service given by public entities. He said Malta ranked high among those countries that provided a number of their services over the internet.

Moreover, the government has introduced several family-friendly measures for its employees by which they could strike a better balance between work and family responsibilities.

In addition to this, more measures had been introduced to reduce bureaucracy and red tape and increase the efficiency of the public service as well as the expenses incurred by government entities.

Employment and Education Minister Louis Galea explained the highlights of the new bill which, he said, would make the public service better, more efficient and more accountable. He said one of the main features of the bill was the importance it gives to the Public Service Commission, strengthening it and giving it more powers to function as a truly independent commission. He said this commission would examine the recruitment processes of people in the public service, including public entities and entities that receive a slice of public funds.

He said another main feature of the bill was the inclusion of a code of ethics for public employees, giving full protection to those, known as “whistleblowers”, who brought to light abuses and breaches in the code of ethics of public service employees. Heads of department will have more powers to carry out their roles as well as to enforce the code of ethics.

In reply to a question, Dr Gonzi said the government was not setting any kind of deadline on discussions at the parliamentary stage but he hoped it would be discussed by the end of the year.