PN singles out Labour MPs who retained public sector salaries

The Nationalist party has accused Opposition leader Joseph Muscat of “hypocrisy” in his criticism of the parliamentary honoraria being paid to Cabinet ministers, because Labour MPs working in the civil service were allowed to retain their employment under the same measure.

The PN singled out three MPs who in 2008 were allowed to retain their public service employment, when they were previously prevented from retaining this salary if they were elected to parliament.

“Roderick Galdes, a director at MEPA, had a weekly increase of €566; Silvio Parnis, who works in the health department, had a €270 weekly increase; and surgeon Anthony Zammit, who can keep serving as a doctor in the public sector, will have taken a €1,137 weekly increase,” the party said in a statement.

In a reaction, the three MPs said they were being targeted personally because the prime minister was trying to justify the "double-salary" for ministers. "Lawrence Gonzi is trying to give the impression that we take home a double salary for the same job and that we took a raise for our work as MPs. The fact is we are paid for full-time employment that has nothing to do with politics. They are two jobs that have nothing to do with each ohter," they said in a statement.

Lawrence Gonzi has come under fire by the Opposition because he failed to publicly announce a decision taken in 2008 that Cabinet ministers were to be paid their honorarium as MPs – which they previously forfeited upon being appointed members of the executive.

“The change allowed MPs who worked in the public sector to retain their employment, giving them large salary increases of up to €1,137 a week,” the PN said its statement, in a reference to accusations by Labour that ministers paid themselves a €500 weekly increase.

“Three years ago, when this change took place, nobody from Labour talked of this increase. What’s good for Labour is not good for others,” the PN said.

The increased MPs’ honorarium however was not paid to either the Speaker of the House or the Opposition leader, whose salaries are indexed with Cabinet’s. Additionally, MPs were unaware that ministers were being paid an honorarium that was 75% of scale 1 salary and not at 50%, which is what they are paid.

Labour, whose motion of censure failed to win the support of rebel government backbenchers last week, have accused the government of paying ministers an honorarium straight out of an ‘allowance’ budget from their own ministries, and not from the budget allocated to the House of Representatives.

But the prime minister says it is “unfair” that ministers lose their honorarium while other MPs earned salaries from public employment.

Ministers were however paid a €26,000 honorarium that was higher than the €19,000 paid to MPs (FULL DATA here) whose honorarium is tagged at 50% of the scale 1 salary in the civil service. Additionally ministers were given a new allowance of 20% of the scale 1 salary bringing their salaries up from €42,000 to €78,000.

In a scale-back in January, Gonzi said ministers would refund the excess honoraria amassed since 2008, totaling some €14,000.