Information Technology Audit: ICT across Local Councils

Auditor General Mr Charles Deguara today presented the Information Technology (IT) audit report on
ICT across Local Councils to the Hon. Speaker of the House of Representatives Dr Anglu Farrugia.

The scope of this IT audit was essentially to analyse various aspects of IT in Local Councils (LCs) across
Malta and Gozo. The National Audit Office (NAO) opted to review 15 of the 68 LCs; it was ensured that
the selection included LCs from every region and serving both small and large communities. The IT
aspects considered in this audit included IT management, software applications and IT operations at
these 15 LCs in Malta and Gozo.

The NAO reported the following key findings, amongst others:

1. IT Staff and IT Budget – Out of 15 LCs reviewed, none had duly qualified IT persons and only
three had an IT budget.

2. Card Payment Facility – None of the 15 LCs reviewed accepted card payments.

3. Accounting system – All 68 LCs and the five Regional Councils have separate installations of
the same accounting system and none are connected to the Local Government Division (LGD).
Periodic accounting updates sent by LCs are consolidated manually by LGD.

4. Permits system – Only three of the 15 LCs visited, had a system to issue and keep track of
permits, called ORNIT, whilst another council was about to procure a similar system, which
was being built from scratch by another supplier.

5. Customer complaints and mail tracking systems – Only four out of 15 LCs reviewed had
procured systems to keep track of residents’ complaints.

6. Local council websites – A substantial number of findings were highlighted whilst reviewing
the websites of 42 of the 68 LCs (as listed in Chapter 3 of the report).

7. Live streaming and On-Demand Facility – Out of 68 LCs, 12 had a non-functioning live
streaming system and only 13 implemented the on-demand facility.

8. Data Backup – Out of 15 LCs visited, only three were taking automated daily backups of all
their data, whereas others were either taking backups of data held by the Executive Secretary
only or conducting backups on ad hoc or weekly basis. Two LCs were not taking backups at all.

9. Local Area Network – Only four of the 15 LCs visited had a functioning local area network
(LAN) to connect the PCs on site.

In order to address the above findings, the NAO recommended that the LGD, should:

• allocate qualified IT staff at the Regional Councils to provide support to the related LCs and
address the operational issues highlighted in the report.
• embark on the integration of systems related to financial reporting, permits issuance and
tracking of customer complaints across all LCs.
• conduct a comprehensive review and monitoring of LC websites, social media and streaming
services to ensure proper functioning and compliance with policies.
• embark on the installation of LANs in all LCs that have no such network.

These issues, along with others, are comprehensively presented in the IT audit report together with
this Office’s recommendations.