PM's chief of staff's financial package costs 10% less than Galea Curmi's

The financial package of Keith Schembri, the Chief of Staff at the Office of the Prime Minister will cost government 10% less than that given to his predecessor, Edgar Galea Curmi.

According to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Galea Curmi was "paid a lot more" than that agreed in the Engagement of Staff for Ministers' Secretariats guidelines in the previous legislature.

Galea Curmi - and now Schembri - received a salary scale 2, equivalent to a €37,036 basic salary. Galea Curmi was scaled up in 2008 from a salary scale 3.

Other benefits to be enjoyed by Schembri include a full use of office car or transport allowance of €4,658.75, free telephone and an additional allowance of €2,096.44. Allowance in lieu of overtime amounts to 25% of salarcy scale 7 (€23,422).

On the other hand, chiefs of staff at the different ministries have been placed on scale 3, a salary of €33,853. The same salary scale is enjoyed by Kurt Farrugia, the head of government communication.

Replying to a parliamentary question raised by PN MP Jason Azzopardi, Muscat also said that the new chiefs of staff will not only be responsible of their respective secretariats but will also be responsible of the Strategic and Priorities Unit which will be set up within each ministry.

The heads of the political staff within each ministry have been upgraded a scale, with an increase of €3,000 a year on their basic salaries compared with their predecessors.

According to the latest collective agreement for the civil service in 2013, scale 4 is equivalent to €30,668, scale 3 to €33,853 and scale 2 to €37,036. These basic salaries are then topped up with allowances that can raise the gross package by as much as €10,000.

Previously, Heads of Secretariat within the ministries were placed on salary scale 4, while the one in the OPM was on salary scale 3.