Performance Audit: An analysis of Malta Medicines Authority recruitment process

The Auditor General, Charles Deguara, presented the Report in caption to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Anglu Farrugia. This audit sought to determine the extent to which the increase in human resources within the Malta Medicines Authority (MMA) reflected the Authority’s requirements and constituted cost-effectiveness. This entailed reviewing the practices adopted by the Authority to strengthen its technical and administrative capabilities.

This Report concluded that the MMA’s strategic direction has placed the Authority on a sound foundation to fulfil its vision as a centre of excellence. This transformation necessitated action at various levels, namely administrative, financial as well as technical.

The Authority’s staff complement increased from 36 in 2012 to 88 as at end 2019. Similarly, its payroll rose from €1.1 million to €3.4 million during the same period. These circumstances reflected the broadening of the scope of the MMA’s remit which in turn translated into a significant rise in the Authority’s workload. Furthermore, various technical audit reports confirmed that the Authority has high quality systems in place to ascertain a highly qualitative output.

From a financial perspective, the Authority is now a self-sustaining entity. In part, this is due to the revenue generated through the increase in activities over time as well as the revision of chargeable fees for some of the services provided. Since 2016, the Authority registered an annual surplus of over €1 million.

MMA’s recruitment process followed generally accepted practices and the Authority has its policies which outline the procedures to be adopted in the recruitment of personnel. The audit based this assertion on a review of the 18 calls for application in 2019, which resulted in the recruitment of 33 employees.

Over the past years, the Malta Medicines Authority’s role and internal organisation have evolved to reflect the changing circumstances within the pharmaceutical industry. The Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) exercise at the MMA generally embraced best practices in its implementation, particularly in circumstances where the Authority needed to strengthen its administrative and technical capacity.