Cachia Caruana was paid €240,000 golden handshake when House voted him out

Foreign Affairs Minister George Vella said that Malta's former permanent representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana, had received €239,085.05 in terminal benefits when he resigned from the post late last year.

Vella said that the golden handshake was composed of his annual salary of €167,476.88, along with a three-month global emolument amounting to €36,453.23.

Vella also said that Cachia Caruana was compensated for 88 days of leave, which amounted to €35,154.92.

On top of that, Vella said, Cachia Caruana also benefited from a transitional allowance that will last for two years from the day of his resignation, which amounts to €5,923.67 monthly.

While the severance lump sum was tax-free, the two-year transitional allowance is taxable.

BACKGROUND
PROFILE The eminence grise
PARLIAMENT Live blog of Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando's speech on Cachia Caruana

In July 2012 after Cachia Caruana tendered his resignation when the House voted him out over his role in the reactivation of Malta's membership in NATO's Partnership for Peace, MaltaToday had revealed that Cachia Caruana's salary was a reported €150,000, apart from expenses for his Ixelles apartment, housekeeping and chauffeur.

Cachia Caruana was paid the top civil service salary and a 10% top-up for a total of over €42,000 a year but also an additional €100,883 in global emoluments that took his salary close to €150,000 a year.

He was paid another €96,000 to rent out his duplex apartment over the artificial lakes in the wealthy Ixelles district, in Brussels, as well as another €75,000 for the payment of the outgoing ambassador's housekeeping, a personal driver, and a police escort.

Cachia Caruana benefited from the highest public sector salary ever paid put by the Maltese government - going head to head with such handsomely-paid civil servants like former Central Bank governor Michael C. Bonello (€128,000), former Communications Authority chairman Philip Micallef and former Malta Environment and Planning Authority chairman Austin Walker (€94,000).

Former foreign minister Tonio Borg had justified Cachia Caruana's 10% top-up of €3,818 as "a recognition of him being one of the most experienced individuals in the service of government, having continuously served in the highest of roles even before 1996."

Cachia Caruana receieved a terminal benefit upon his departure from Brussels, when the Nationalist government lost a vote of confidence in Cachia Caruana; as well as a transitional facility for the next months to assist in his transition from ambassador. The transitional allowance was introduced by Lawrence Gonzi in 2008 to assist former ministers, and the Opposition leader, in phasing-out their high incomes when returning to their private, professional occupations.

After his resignation, Cachia Caruana was retained as an EU advisor to Lawrence Gonzi while Marlene Bonnici was appointed permanent secretary. Cachia Caruana still retained a central role in EU affairs, although he was not paid a new salary, since he was earning a transitional benefit.