Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/914278
maltatoday SUNDAY 10 DECEMBER 2017 News 17 YANNICK PACE THE National Audit Office has flagged what were described as "spiralling" disbursements from public funds to church schools, which have increased by some €30 million over a period of ten years, reaching €63 million by 2016. Despite not being administered by the gov- ernment, church schools in Malta are entitled to government funding by virtue of an agree- ment entered into between the Holy See and the Republic of Malta. The allocation is intended to cover approved teaching and non-teaching salary costs, as well as a 10% contribution to general expenditure. In a report outlining the findings from an audit of the Education Ministry's expenditure on church schools, the NAO said that while expenditure had increased substantially over a period of ten years, the number of students had only increased by some 450 students. This means that the cost per student had in- creased from €1,923 to €3,680 since 2007. "Without going into the merits of the edu- cational aspect, in the absence of adequate controls as highlighted further down in this report, the continuous increase in expendi- ture involved is of significant concern," read the report. As with many other audits carried out by the NAO on government entities, it was noted that there was inadequate documentation supporting budgeting processes, no official records of workings to back up the entitle- ment to resources, and an absence of a de- tailed monthly breakdown of the actual staff expenditure financed by the state. Under the agreement between the government and the church, the latter's schools are meant to sub- mit a full list of their staff complement to the ministry, with an indication of the remunera- tion of each. "The budget requirement for financial year 2016 was only made available for audit pur- poses in July 2017, after four weeks from the NAO's request and following several remind- ers. This delay raised doubts as to whether such information was available at the minis- try," said the NAO. Furthermore, it said that a number of figures could not be reconciled due to a lack of docu- mentation. "[Ministry] representatives confirmed that no reconciliation was ever performed in or- der to ascertain whether the total funds trans- ferred actually tallied with approved staff ex- penditure." The NAO stressed that given the substan- tial amount of money being directed towards church schools, there was a great need for sound and internal control, as well as a com- plete audit trail to be implemented. On its part, the ministry did not contest any of the NAO's observations, insisting that it would begin implementing the recommenda- tions by the Auditor General. ypace@mediatoday.com.mt TOWERS, FORTS & BATTERIES IN MALTA maltatoday TOWERS, FORTS & BATTERIES IN MALTA maltatoday w i t h M a l t aT od a y on S u n d a y €2.50 Order your copy now. Available with the maltatoday next Sunday example, the odds that older people residing in the Western district used public transport on a monthly manner compared to never using it were four times more likely than those living in Gozo". Less likely to drive The picture that Mifsud, At- tard and Ison's study paints of the Maltese public transport system as a whole is not exactly a flatter- ing one. Perhaps it cuts deeper than any typical take-down of 'the buses' in Malta – which, let's face it, is also something of a na- tional past-time – because of its specific choice of focus: that of the elderly, which in turn means a focus on some of society's most vulnerable individuals. Individu- als who should, for all intents and purposes, be encouraged and helped along by a well-oiled pub- lic transport system that works to make their lives easier. Given how the study also found that the older one gets, the less likely they are to drive – "for every one year increase in age, the odds of being a driver is reduced by 7.4%" – one would assume that a higher take-up of public trans- port in old age would be a given. "However, in Malta this did not prove to be the case since public transport usage was, overall, low," the authors state. "This shows that public trans- port in Malta is not yet catering enough for the older-old since they may still prefer to travel by car – particularly as passengers." treljic@mediatoday.com.mt GIVING UP DRIVING AFTER 60 Main reasons given: Health limitations (36%) The perceived traffic and parking difficulties (31%) Fear (11%) Reliance on relatives (7%) Additionally, 67% of those who decided to give up driving were females NAO flags €60 million-plus spend on Church schools "Without going into the merits of the educational aspect... the continuous increase in expenditure involved is of significant concern" The NAO said that given the substantial amount of money being directed towards church schools, there was a great need for sound and internal control