From Mr R. Stagno Navarro

The Auditor General’s report on local councils for 2004 makes shocking reading (TMIS, 16 January). It is unfortunate that your article does not identify the local council criticised for a particular item.

One of the more worrying points was the payment of Lm870 for a mayor’s mobile phone. I do not know if a mayor has an allowance for the use of his/her mobile phone but surely over Lm70 a month is exorbitant. Cannot an itemised bill be demanded and payments made only for those calls that concern the mayor’s duties? Another contentious point is the award of various direct orders, which amount to thousands of liri, without a proper tendering process.

This can open the door to abuse. No local council should be allowed to play around with the taxpayers’ money. Is it not also scandalous that councillors were given a gold pin and a Christmas hamper in recognition of their work?

Perhaps the most worrying aspect is the fact that one council had no less than Lm16,000 cash in hand. To make matters worse there were also almost Lm1800 of out of date cheques. This is absolutely mind-boggling. The mayor and secretary of this particular council should be fired. What about the other councillors? Why were they so complacent?

The central government hands out money to local councils and if they only tighten controls thousands can be saved. One hopes that the Auditor General’s comments and the shortcomings he highlighted do not go unheeded. It is also essential that the Ministry responsible informs the public what action it has taken against each individual council. Your newspaper should tell readers the names of those councils who have defaulted. If only we had the Freedom of Information Law, we would not have to rely on reports but we could all directly elicit the information we want.

Richard Stagno Navarra

LIJA

Editor’s Note: The Auditor General’s report did not specify which councils did what.