Councils badly need good governance

However much the auditor general complains about the way local councils operate, it is unlikely that the country can expect any tangible improvement any time soon. Most of the time people’s complaints about councils centre on wardens or poor/delayed road surfacing. Both stir endless anger and controversy, but the problem concerning local councils goes far deeper than that.

If local councils have often incurred the wrath of thousands of motorists for the zealousness many local wardens show when booking motorists, many times for silly offences, they only have themselves to blame.

In truth, though, it is for far more serious shortcomings than this that they ought to face the people’s scorn. Just a glance at what the auditor general has to say about the councils’ operations ought to put many of them to shame, yet it does not seem that the auditor’s remarks are making the kind of impact that should bring the councils to order.

Is this because the councils are far too politicised? Maybe, but whatever reason may be brought up for the unacceptable way the councils are operating, there certainly ought to be a serious reassessment of their responsibilities and a meaningful reform of the way they operate to put them on a sound footing.

Political parties only bring the councils into the limelight when elections to them are approaching. It is rare that the country goes into their workings in a dispassionate manner, a shortcoming not just politicians have to answer for, but electors too, for it is they who have to pay the bill for their running and for any costly slip-up.

Politicians have a tendency to talk a lot about good governance, accountability and transparency, but often enough they fall short in taking action to abide by the principles they pronounce when they are in government.

They also rarely react meaningfully to the serious weaknesses in the running of the administration brought up by the auditor general, year in, year out. Sometimes, a politician picks up a serious anomaly or two to hit out at their political opponent, but the overall political reaction remains far too weak and unconvincing.

In his last report, the auditor general again complains that a number of weaknesses and concerns reported in previous years had still prevailed.

No fewer than 17 councils and two regional committees had a negative working capital, and 23 were running a deficit. This is not a small matter, yet what kind of political reaction has there been to this? Practically nil.

There is more that ought to raise public concern. A number of councils are on the verge of facing liquidity problems if they do not cut their expenditure. Yet, according to the auditor, despite their precarious financial position, certain councils have still approved and contracted for additional capital commitments, amounting up to thousands of euros. This does not any make sense.

As is the case every year, the report is littered with shortcomings and instances of non-observance of rules and regulations. The same can be said of the situation in the administration generally, as clearly shown by the auditor’s report.

Good governance, accountability and transparency may be attractive buzzwords for politicians to use, particularly at election time, but electors ought to hold them to their word and make it clear that they expect them to turn their rhetoric into action.