Budget measures implementation rate up in 2021

Government has implemented 79% of budget measures for 2021, a review by the principal permanent secretary’s office shows.

Civil service chief Mario Cutajar said the implementation rate this year was seven points higher than the average for the past eight years.

Cutajar said 364 measures from Budget 2021 were fully implemented and a further 159 initiatives from previous years that were in progress came to fruition.

“The annual budget is not just an accounting exercise or a profit and loss account but the implementation of government’s electoral programme over a five-year span,” Cutajar said when unveiling a thick report giving details of each of the 2021 measures.

The review has been presented every year since the Labour Party came to government in 2013.

Cutajar said 49% of budget measures implemented this year concerned social aspects, while 26% of measures tackled the environment.

Cutajar said that since 2013 his office set up a permanent structure to keep track of budget measures and how the individual ministries were implementing them.

“This structure was part of the public service reform and today we are in a position to give a full account of each of the 1,970 budget measures announced since 2013 and their implementation,” Cutajar said.