Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/197223
11 News maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 23 OCTOBER 2013 Church records €16,000 operations surplus FOR the first time since 2006, the Maltese Archdiocese registered an operations surplus of €16,000 during 2012. This comes as positive news to the Church, who between 2008 and 2011 made a loss of more than €3.5 million. Presenting the Church's financial and pastoral report for 2012, pastoral secretary Charles Cordina said the Archdiocese had reached a balance between its revenue and expenditure. The Church's total surplus amounted to €976,393, a figure which was boosted by return on capital investments and interests. However, several of its entities keep operating at a deficit: the Ecclesiastical Tribunal registered a €457,000 deficit while children's homes, old people's homes and church media remain operating at a loss. "But it's a satisfaction for the Church to keep providing support to the vulnerable. However, this would not be possible without the help of our volunteers and the donations," Cordina said. During 2012, collections and donations amounted to €8,039,659. Even though Dar tal-Providenza suffered a reduction in donations, it however enjoyed an increase in funds raised through different activities. Last year's total income amounted to €25,855,437 while expenditure amounted to €25,839,261. One of the Church's biggest expenses are salaries of lay employees, which amounted to €11,099,036 and operational costs which amounted to €9,829,585. The development of the Seminary's primary school has had significant impact on the Church's finances in terms of both revenue and expenditure. In taxes during 2012, the Church paid €849,246 – a reduction of €89,630 when compared to the pre- Monsignors Charles Cordina and Anton Portelli vious year. Referring to Pope Francis's call for increased transparency and better management of resources and funds, Cordina said the Maltese Church had committed to such practices, having always published its accounts for the past 11 years. Administrative secretary Monsignor Anton Portelli said the Archdiocese embarked on a cost-cutting exercise to reduce its expenses. This was carried out through controlled spending and prioritising needs. Funds for feasts and printing expenses were reduced while banks were asked to manage the investments. State grunts were equally important to sustain the Church's community services, especially through the work carried out by Caritas. The partnership between Church and government in providing beds for the elderly also proved beneficial for the Church given that the gov- ernment offered advantageous rates to the Church. During 2012, the Clergy's Fund amounted to €401,359 with the Archdiocese admitting that some parishes did not have enough funds to pay their priests providing services. The Central Fund – which allocates funds for eight entities, including children's homes, old people's homes, media, ecclesiastical tribunal and pastoral secretariats and commissions among others – suffered a loss of over €700,000. During 2012, this fund forked out €1,954,348 to different entities. In order to address its costs, the Church has also applied for EU funds in order to install solar panels at 53 different sites. Capital gains on investments remain a positive source for the Church, having reached €960,307 in 2012. In 2011, this total amounted to €267,665. CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 Minister of Finance refuses to comment further on National Statistical Office CONTACTED by MaltaToday, the NSO director general Michael Pace Ross, who has been occupying the post for over five years, said that "there is no pressure whatsoever in the way data is calculated and published". Asked whether he will stay beyond his current contract, Pace Ross said that his contract expires in 2014, but refused to delve into his future at the helm of NSO. On the error which led to the finance minister to ask for an official investigation, Pace Ross said that the NSO statement clarifying the error was very clear. "NSO detected an error, which it regrets, and, in line with the European Statistics Code of Practice, took steps to correct it immediately. NSO will cooperate fully with any investigation by the Malta Statistics Authority. Pending the outcome of this investigation, the NSO is not in a position to comment further," he said. The finance ministry refused to answer questions on whether Pace Ross enjoyed the government's confidence and whether it intended to extend his contract. A spokesperson told MaltaToday: "The ministry does not feel it is prudent to comment before an investigation can be conducted by the regulator concerned, the Malta Statistics Authority, which is being requested by the ministry to prepare a detailed report with relevant recommendations." Yesterday morning, the ministry noted a statement issued by the National Statistics Office which said that the post production validation and checking process identified a compilation error in the component 'Taxes on Production and Imports' originally published on 6 September 2013. The finance ministry added that according to the statement, this had a significant effect on the Gross Domestic Product figure for 2013 Quarter 2, which in September 2013 was mistakenly listed as 1.7%, but was in fact recalculated to 3.6%. It added that minister asked the MSA chairman Albert Leone Ganado to investigate "what may have led to the error, together with any other related issues. The Minister will be requesting a detailed report including recommendation for the further Finance Minister Edward Scicluna will be requesting a detailed report including recommendation for the further strengthening of the institution strengthening of the institution". Leone Ganado was appointed at the helm of the authority in July by Scicluna. "The ministry has also received assurances that the error occurred within the statistical agency and was not contained in any upstream tax data provided by the finance ministry," the statement said. The ministry also pointed out that the draft Budget for 2014 is based on an economic forecast for 2014, which in turn is estimated over a long-term time-series, and is therefore not expected to be affected by one particular quarter. "In line with the European Statistics Code of Practice, which requires that errors discovered in published statistics are corrected at the earliest possible date and publicised, NSO recalculated provisional GDP estimates for the second quarter as published last month." In reaction, the Nationalist Party expressed its concern over Scicluna's criticism and former finance minister Tonio Fenech accused Scicluna of political interference. "Scicluna expects the NSO to only publish the data which suits him instead of reflecting the country's financial and economic realities. In particular, he admitted that he does not want the NSO to show what the reality is in terms of the unemployment rate, which has continued to increase month after month, and in relation to infaltion, which has also continued to increase in recent months ," Fenech said. He added that this was not the first time the Labour government attacked the independence of NSO and underlined Scicluna's visit at the NSO premises, when he had "questioned the credibility of the NSO when criticising the way it collects statistics on the country's GDP". The Opposition MP added that such attacks on the credibility of the NSO are "extremely dangerous" because they damage the country's credibility. "The independence of statistics published by the NSO, although falling under the government's responsibility, is crucial in maintaining the respect of European and international institutions, credit rating agencies and investors looking at Malta as a reliable country to conduct their business in," Fenech said.