Malta holds ‘longest’ contract adjudication time in EU - report

It takes an average 241 days - eight months - from bidding to adjudication of a public contract in Malta, a report prepared by a group of experts chaired by former Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber reveals.

The full report is expected to be published today at the end of a meeting between Stoiber and European Commission President Jose' Manoel Durrao Barroso in Brussels.

The report - which identifies Malta's lengthy cointract adjudication process - concludes that companies around the EU could save nearly €40 billion, if the EU reduced bureaucratic procedures.

In 2010, a conference organised by the Management Efficiency Unit (MEU) in Valletta, it was concluded that it was an indisputable fact that Government should do all that is within its control to eliminate unnecessary administrative burdens, so as to remove any unnecessary expenses and waste of precious time both for the citizens as well as for the business sector. 

The removal of unnecessary administrative burden is accepted to represent an important tool in government's efforts to create an economically competitive operational environment. 

Government's projected aim is to reduce administrative burdens related to the Company Law, Tax Law, Statistics; Financial Services; Pharmaceuticals, Fisheries, Food Safety, Environment, Working Environment/Employee Relations and Public Procurement.

In this respect, Malta has committed itself to reduce administrative burdens on businesses by 15% by this year.

It also aims to ensure that better regulation is not only a buzz word but becomes ingrained in the regulatory culture of government intervention.