“Where is the monti, sir?”

The answer to that question should have been: “Walk past City Gate, down Republic Street and take the first turning to the left.”

But the key words are ‘should have been’ because the Valletta monti has not yet relocated to Ordinance Street as was promised in Budget 2014.

This is one of several proposals made by Finance Minister Edward Scicluna last year that were not implemented.

A review exercise of Budget 2014 conducted by The Sunday Times of Malta shows that large trucks and horses this year should have been prohibited from circulating in the roads during rush-hour traffic and work on the flyover at Kappara junction should have started.

But motorists still get caught up behind slow-moving large vehicles in the morning traffic mayhem and work on the junction has been delayed despite Transport Malta having planning permits in hand.

As for government’s initiative to create more parking spaces, no holistic plan has yet been released.

Members of Parliament should have also started to be paid their honoraria according to attendance in line with the government’s commitment to instil more accountability.

The government also had to set up the Malta Oil and Gas Corporation, an agency to handle the State’s oil exploration efforts and works on the construction of the law courts in Gozo had to start. Neither of these two Budget commitments were fulfilled. Nor was the pledge to hold a constitutional convention.

Marsaxlokk fishermen will be disappointed since plans for a breakwater next to the hard standing facility in the locality have remained just that. And a promised campaign to raise awareness on the negative impact of tax evasion was so effective that people cannot even remember it.

The government did deliver on certain key proposals. Free childcare was introduced in April, the second cut in the top income tax rate for those earning less than €60,000 was implemented, the illegal VAT paid by motorists on cars bought between 2004 and 2008 started being refunded, stamp duty on property purchases by first-time buyers was removed and electricity bills were cut by an average of 25 per cent for households.

However, other measures were only introduced over the past few weeks, in time to claim achievement before Budget 2015 is delivered.

A proposal to have property valuations by government architects for tax purposes replaced with declarations by private architects was rolled out last week.

Tax incentives to encourage people to take out private pensions were also unveiled in the past few days while proposals to grant teachers a sabbatical for study purposes were only forwarded to the Malta Union of Teachers a couple of weeks ago.

And while the White Paper to reform the Pharmacy of Your Choice scheme was released and feedback collected, the change seems to be stuck in limbo.