A reform meant to expediate inspections by State entities to cut red tape for businesses has failed to reach these objectives while raising questions on the level of scrutiny being adopted, the National Audit Office has concluded.

This verdict was reached on the strength of a performance audit which the NAO carried out on the Inspections Coordination System (ICO) – a unit falling under the remit of the Office of the Prime Minister which was rolled out in 2019. Its objective is to streamline inspections across private establishments in a bid to do away with the fragmented and piecemeal approach which was resulting in multiple inspections being carried out within the same year. This was also meant to reduce the associated burden on business.

The NAO pointed out that according to a government statement released in 2021 the reform was meant to reduce business inspections by 82% which was supposed to translate a reducing 5,231 annual inspections to just 928. It turned out; however, the reform missed these targets.  

Firstly, business operators who spoke with the NAO remarked that the overall burden of inspections had not been reduced after all. This concern prompted the NAO to recommended looking further into the matter.  Moreover, it was also pointed out that the practice of alerting the businesses prior to an ICO inspection should be reconsidered, as this was an advance warning for non-compliant business operators and was thus undermining enforcement.

A key concern flagged in the audit was about the reliability and equity of the process through which inspected businesses would be awarded a certificate. This criticism was levelled after it emerged that inspections carried out by the ICO without the involvement of specialised personnel were being carried out with less rigour. This matter prompted the NAO to question the reliability of the certificate. Furthermore, questions were also raised in view of the fact that not all establishments were guaranteed to be inspected with the same timeframe, and hence those who miss out felt aggrieved they did not have the opportunity to be certified.

The analysis also looked at the reform from a quantitative perspective and it transpired that the number of inspections between 2019 and 2024  had actually increased.

In its conclusion, the report commends  the initiative behind the setting up of the ICO but noted that its current implementation was having limited impact in reducing the inspectorate burden on businesses.