Prime Minister Joseph Muscat today told parliament that the government will be putting into place a mystery shopper programme to see whether the public is getting a good service from government departments.

Speaking during the budget debate, Dr Muscat said an agency would be assigned to send a number of mystery shoppers to verify whether the public is getting a good customer experience.

“If I were to go myself, as Prime Minister, I will no doubt receive a good service from a government department but we need to know how private citizens are being served,” he said.

He said that he is confident that this programme would turn out to be very effective.

On bureaucracy, he said that this remains our country’s biggest enemy. He said this government is a pro business one and the government is working to reduce it.

He said that this year the government continued to train persons who serve the public.

“We made sure that the civil service will have workers who graduated and even pro graduates,” he explained.