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Welfare Reform Commission’s
report nearing completion
by David Kelleher
The Welfare Reform Commission set up by the government last
year will be meeting in the coming weeks to discuss the different
scenarios and solutions on welfare reform. Following these meetings
the Commission will be in a position to present its finalised
report to the government, The Malta Business Weekly has learnt.
The Commission for Welfare Reform had to present its final report
to the government last December, however this was delayed due
to the technical panel not finalising its reports. Contacted
by The Malta Business Weekly to explain the six-month delay,
the Ministry for Social Policy said the Commission’s exercise
is nearing completion.
“The Ministry has been informed that the technical panel
of the Commission has been working on a number of actuarial
reports which are necessary in order to evaluate the different
options that might be put forward. The Ministry is also informed
that this technical aspect of the exercise is now nearing completion
and therefore it is expected that the Commission will meet in
the coming weeks in order to discuss the different scenarios.
We are expecting that a report will be presented to us soon
after the Commission finalises this discussion,” a spokesman
for the Ministry said.
Asked why the government, or the social policy ministry, had
not taken a more direct role in getting the Commission to present
the report, the spokesman said such reports need considerable
time to be concluded and the Ministry wanted to give the Commission
as much breathing space as possible.
“The government strongly believes that the issues that
are being addressed by the Commission are national issues which
require everyone’s participation. It has been our policy
to allow the Commission the breadth to operate without undue
interference and pressures from the government side in order
to allow it to finalise its task in the country’s best
interest,” the Ministry said.
It added: “This notwithstanding, government has provided
and continues to provide the Commission with all technical expertise
(including World Bank technical experts) that is required for
it to be able to make the correct assessments and evaluations.
Failure to do so would have resulted in government risking undermining
and mistrusting the same structure which itself appointed. In
addition, we think that quality solutions should not be compromised
under the guise of hastiness.”
The delay has also put the Commission in a bad light. When asked
whether a change in the Commission’s set up should have
been effected by the government given the former’s “incompetence”
at meeting government-set deadlines, the Ministry disagreed
that the Commission is or was “incompetent”.
“The Ministry disagrees with such a comment. In no way
is the Commission ‘incompetent’. We all appreciate
the magnitude and complexity of the task that has been entrusted
to the Commission. Similar Commissions in other countries took
a long number of years to complete the same exercise that is
being carried out in Malta.“Constructive criticism is always
needy and helpful,” the spokesman told The Malta Business
Weekly. “This exercise has been entrusted to a national
Commission, in a spirit of social partnership and concentration,
because it is a national issue of enormous significance to the
economic and social fabric. Of course, government could have
chosen to conduct this exercise by itself, but doing so would
have divested the process from the consensual approach which
is so important for such an issue. It is for this reason that
we continue to believe that it is in our country’s best
interest to allow the Commission some extra time to obtain all
the technical reports it requires and to finalise its work –
something which we all hope will be done in the very near future,”
he added.
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