Spending cuts will freeze 500 public sector jobs, MEP says

EU orders for €40 million in cuts will dampen recruitment drive and government programmes.

10 January 2012, 12:00am
by Matthew Vella

2 min read

Edward Scicluna says government's spending cuts will mean a freeze on recruitment and overtime.

Labour MEP Edward Scicluna has said government will have to wipe off as many as 500 jobs in a recruitment freeze to save millions in spending on the European Commission's orders.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi announced Friday a 0.59% cut in government spending, after European Commissioner Olli Rehn informed the Maltese government on 11 November - three days before the last Budget - that Malta will have to meet its target for a deficit that is lower than 3% of gross domestic product.

Economist Edward Scicluna said the €35-40 million cut in spending will leave the government with little room for manoeuvre.

"It will mean pain. When the government is tied by so many wage agreements with the unions, assistance to industry and various legal obligations, the government has very little room for manoeuvre.

"The first lever the government suggested is a sort of freeze on recruitment and on overtime. I reckon some 400 to 500 jobs need to be wiped off the government sector and the suppression of 400,000 hours or so. That leaves €30 million to go."

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said the cuts will take place in recruitment and overtime, operational and maintenance expenditure, programmes and initiatives, and government entities.

But Scicluna says the cuts come a mere eight weeks after the Budget was announced. "It would have been better to come up with a credible and sustainable budget in the first place."

The MEP contends the €40 million gap will provoke a political fall-out if any, "because the electorate will have to bear the economic brunt of these painful cuts."

A spokesperson for the Commission told MaltaToday that Rehn will in the coming days communicate the EC's definitive assessment of the latest measures announced by the government and their impact on the excessive deficit procedure.

Malta, Belgium, Cyprus, Hungary and Poland were told to take corrective steps by mid-December if they wanted to avoid sanctions under the new rules. Malta is aiming to reduce deficit to 2.3% of GDP in 2012. The Commission gives member states adequate warning before issuing sanctions. "We want to have some clarification to make sure they will meet this target and that it will not have to trigger another step in the excessive deficit procedure," a spokesperson for the EU told Bloomberg News on Friday.

The EU's new governance rules give the Commission the power to impose financial sanctions on member states that do not abide by deficit and debt rules. The sanction amounts to a deposit of 0.2 per cent of a country's GDP, which can be turned into a fine if the member state ignored Brussels recommendations to rein in the deficit.

Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...

More from Matthew Vella Matthew on Twitter

•

Individual countries either give up their sovereign rights in favor of a stronger Europe or dump the EU altogether.

•

Jekk iwaqqaf' bieb il-belt project' il-problema tigi solvuta.....imma imbaghad minn fejn se jidhlu il-flus ghall-kampanja ta l-elezzjoni? Din hi id-dilemma ta GonziPN: mhux l-interess taghna ilkoll!

Zack Depasquale •

@I.Fenech Nowadays we are not after a job with the government, we are more after a job with a useless corporation, where government salaries are peanuts compared to what super salaries some of the chosen few blue eyed boys are getting. For the rest of the population, the workers who usually make all the sacrifices, it is only precarious jobs with dirt low wages that are in the offing.

Micheal Bonanno •

@I.Fenech. Whom are you trying to kid? The same government you're backing has for every worker retired, three have taken his place. Now both parties are facing realities, and what Profs. Scicluna said, you managed to turn it over its head! As usual from a PN apologist. As usual you point your finger at the PL, but there are 3 other fingers pointing back at you. The PN has been in government, for nearly 25 years! And you know what, the Civil Service is still bloated! The PN had every chance to cut back on the civil service but didn't! Why? Hope you can answer yourself that question!

•

Hekk jigrilu missier ta familja jekk jonfoq u gib min jonfoq bhal mhu qed jaghmel gonzipn. niftakkru ftit kemm ha mijuni ta euros Enzo piano.Niftakkru ftit kemm intefqu miljuni fil mater (dejn)u fil power station tal yellow pages.Issa ser niffaccjaw il muzika. Eh bil haqq,aktarx li ser inmorru ghal l'elezzjoni bl'ID cards skaduti.austin hekk ried u irnexilu,ghalhekk gonzi iridu imexxi l elezzjoni..PL Pease Note.

Nazzareno Pace •

This is the new EU Malta has joined with all the corrupted politics and beurocracy it is surrounded with. Now we wre tied to it's rules and have to abid to them even though they are too much for such a small country. We the people have chosen this union and have to accept whatever they say in Brussels. We have been promised a smaller public sector since 1987, but in reality the code government including the corporations have increased in numbers. Furthermore the government was so rich that he payed monies to those who wanted to leave. And now we are facing the reality of a goverment that is very near to be being classified as having one of the worst financial situations. And despite this the goverment is discussing more its internal issues than anything else and is still spending spending and spending without any control. Shame, shame and more shame to GonziPN for this and tank god they had a person willing to take a string stance such as Franco Debono. Whoever wins the next election does not have an easy task as there will be no one to help us get out of this situation.

•

@I. Fenech In 1987 labour Govt left 500million Liri and gold reserves,compare with todays money is billions of euros and now we have €4.55billion debts besides those debts that hidden, and all our assets were sold for pittance, All the money the MLP left I would call it a mistake, cause if KMB was wise enough he could have spend it all and recruted more employees with the Government and still would have balanced the books. The money was squandered until 1996 and all was gone, from than on we had deficits, just rememgber in 2008 Dr. Gonzinm said we are gonna have a surplus , what a farce, now the Eu commission throws the books back at us, thanks for the missuse of your Pn philosophers for this fiasco.

•

@ Gooner "What the hell has Labour got to do with this?" you ask. This Prof Scicluna is a Labour candidate, that's why. And he is off supporting recruitment in the public sector, which is the same old Socialist Labour policy, galvanised during Labour's gold years of KMB, when thousands were recruited irregularly on the eve of the 1987 election. The PN has managed to win that and subsequent elections inspite of the ignorant masses who generally vote Labour.

•

@ I Fenech.what the hell has Labour got to do with this? "the ignorant masses" as you've called them have been electing PN for the last 25 years!!o.O how about cutting on highly paid consultants,which we have many of! Costs reduction should be shared by all sectors.

•

Nehhejtuli il kumment tieghi ghax laqat il -laham il haj, veru hawn korporazzjonijiet ivvintati b'salarji ezagerati, dawn mhumiex produttivi, ara ta L-Airmalta u tat-tarzna li ma fallewiex apposta dawk kienu produttivi. Burokraziji u korporazjonijiet ivvintati joholqu, stagnar u hela ta flus u hela ta hin. Ilu jghid JM li hawn burokrazija zejda, Aktar chiefs min Indians.

•

I feel that if the government provides real enforcement in the unemployed sector and makes a drive to ensure that it is only the unemployed that are given help than he may find some extra millions. Also if he considers reducing the amount of boards and the rate of payment for these board appointed persons he will than come up with the required sum. I feel that in this country we have more chiefs than needed and all that most of them are doing is sucking our tits dry. Also how about VAT, the millions that have gone missing.

•

Less Govt will save much more then 40 million. There are so many useless 'Boards' that are simply there to pay the blue eyed boys director's fees. No rocket science approach to cut where it won't hurt the general public.

•

@ I Fenech...Ma naqbilx ma l-argument li ghamilt. Qeghedin nitkellmu fuq nies, familji,u jobs, u mhux karawett.. Issa jekk jahdmu mal privat, jew mal gvern,....skuzi, mhux taxxi qeghedin ihallsu ukoll ? U jekk jghamlu hafna u hafna overtime mhux hafna u hafna taxxi iridu ihallsu. Kemm hija aktar gravi jekk ma jahdmux ( mela mhux talli ma ihallsux taxxi, imma talli jiehdu il beneficcji socjali ), jew jahdmu mal privat min taht itihom paga u min fuq itihom ohra sabiex ma ihallsux taxxa, jew jahdmu bhala self employed, jew xoghol prekarju, bhal ma ghawn it tendenza bhal issa taht dan il gvern.Iddur fejn iddur, aktar ma titfa flus f`bwiet in nies ( haddiema ) aktar ikollhom x`jonfqu.Aktar ma jonfqu aktar ir rota iddur ghal kullhadd. FLUS JGHAMLU IL FLUS U QAMEL JGHAMLU IL QAMEL..hekk kien jghejdli in nannu.

•

M'ghanux ghaggla l-Ministru li jibda jzomm l-infieq essagerat li ghanda bhalissa issa troppo tardi u ser jkollu jirrikorri biex inaqqas l-impiegi u l-overtime zewg ghewwien essenzjali ghal ghixien tal-familiji....meta dawn diga' qedin fi krizi meta ghawn nixfa qawwija ta' flus fl-idejn.....perjodu hazin fejn il-poplu ghandu bzonn stimolu u mhux iffrizzar u ssikar tac-cintorin (li ma baqalux toqob fejn tissikka). X'ser jigri minn dawk il ftehim kollettivi ferm mistennija biex jistimulaw il-familiji koncernati li hemm pendenti fis-settur publiku u f'azjendi ohra... daqqa wara daqqa wara daqqa.

•

Prof Scicluna, what the hell is wrong with cutting back public sector jobs and overtime? People pay taxes for their wages and salaries you know. It is a pity that it has to be the European Commission to get Malta to do that. The unproductive public sector, which contributes nothing to the GNP, should be rolled back as a matter of policy. What will Labour do if in government Prof Scicluna? No replies there. Of course not. Labour has always lived off patronage in the public sector while milking the private sector dry. "Job mal-gvern" was Labour's answer to unemployment, a policy which ensured a sure supply of votes from the ignorant masses when elections come around.

•

Yes it can be done, get rid of all these invented corporations for the blue eyed boys, tal klikka, like MTA these last two years 38 new managers, so many sitting pretty on a €40,000 salary with mobile phones and car leasing, consultants with a hefty €100,000 for giving the MTA the bus routes, naming Georg Sapiano's Company, lets get rid of this waste of incompetent PN clique and we can go forward, this has been goin on for many years now annd that is why we have €4.555 deficit.