Maltese believe public administration is close to the people but lacks transparency

Maltese public administration enjoys the strongest reputation across the EU of being ‘close to the citizens’, according to a Eurobarometer survey.

But the perceptions survey also showed that the Maltese are the third most likely in the EU to describe public administration in their country as lacking transparency.

Respondents in a Eurobarometer survey were asked what best describes the public administration in their country.

They were presented with nine descriptions, both positive and negative ones, and they were asked to choose up to three descriptions.

The findings show that 42% of Maltese respondents described their public administration as ‘close to the citizens’ , the highest in the EU.

In contrast only 18% described Malta’s civil service as  ‘not close to the citizens’.

Moreover, only 19% described the public administration in their country as ‘complex and burdensome’, which was the lowest in the EU.

The most likely to consider public administration in their country as ‘complex and burdensome’ were those in France (60%), Bulgaria (58%) and Germany (56%), while the lowest shares are observed in Malta, Luxembourg (19%), Estonia (20%) and Sweden (21%).

The Maltese (37%) were also the third most likely to describe public administration in their country as one lacking transparency after the Poles (45%) and the Greeks (41%).

Furthermore, while believing that their public administration is close to the people, the Maltese were also among the least likely to have had contact with the public administration in their country - between one and three times in the past 12 months.

The percentage of people who have contacted a public administration between once and three times  ranged from 25% in Malta to 54% in Hungary. Malta was one in  four countries, where over half of respondents said they had not contacted public administration in the past 12 months - Malta (58%), Croatia (58%), Ireland (55%) and the Netherlands (52%).

Respondents were then asked what improvements could increase their trust in the public administration in their country. They could choose up to three improvements from a list of eight.

The share of respondents mentioning ‘more moral integrity in the public administration’ ranged from 12% in Latvia to 35% in Poland. Countries with a proportion close to that of Poland were Estonia (34%), Malta (34%) and Italy (33%). Finland (13%) and Sweden (14%), on the other hand, join Latvia at the lower end of the country ranking.