This morning, during a news conference, the Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government Alison Zerafa Civelli together with the Parliamentary Secretary for European Funds Chris Bonett closed a training project that was spread over a period of four years. This project called ‘Training for local workers in the principles of good governance, accounting and transparency’ was financed by a fund of €200,000 through a Norwegian scheme.
The Local Government Division was responsible for the implementation of this project, by training and offering various experiences on matters concerning the importance of good governance in the running of Maltese and Gozitan localities to administrative and elected members of local and regional councils. These include the workers of the local and regional councils, mayors, councilors and the regional Presidents.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government Alison Zerafa Civelli praised the commitment of the Local Government Division to implement this training project for the benefit of all local and regional council officials. “Congratulations also to everyone who attended and participated in the initiatives that were organized, because in the end this training should translate into better locations and improving the lives of the residents” said Zerafa Civelli. She concluded by saying that as explained in the document of Consultation for the National Strategy of Local Government, the Parliamentary Secretariat is committed to continuing to support the importance of good governance at a local and regional leadership level.
This project was carried out in full collaboration with the Local Government partners, which include the Association of Local Councils and the National Association of Executive Secretaries of Local Councils and Regions. The Norwegian Association representing the interests of local and regional communities in Norway were also involved.
This project continued to strengthen on other projects that were implemented by the same Division in previous years and through which the deficiencies and the needs for improvement in the field of governance at local level in Malta and Gozo were identified. The reports of each project were written and studied by experts hired by the Council of Europe and based on them and on the recommendations included in them, this training project was designed.
The Parliamentary Secretary for European funds Chris Bonett said that a project like this continued to help improve the skills of all those involved in the field of local governance in order to offer better services to the communities they represent or work for. Dr. Bonett said that he looks forward so that both Norwegian and European funds continue to invest in the local council and their employees with the aim of improving the service they offer to citizens.
For his part the Director General of the Local Government Division said that as this project has now come to an end he looks forward to see its fruits in the leadership of the local and regional councils.
The number of initiatives linked to this training program amounts to 47. The number of elected and administrative officials who have been trained amounts to a little more than 420 people. The initiatives included educational courses, team building activities, informative meetings as well as official visits to Norwegian local councils.
