Speaker takes ‘personal interest’ in ensuring correct records of absent MPs

Speaker Anglu Farrugia is taking a "personal interest" to ensure that parliamentary attendance records are not manipulated by MPs or whips who have been observed demanding corrections to the minutes to include absent MPs in the attendance records.

The chamber of deputies can be devoid of MPs on those days where members have to give speeches to the House but when there is no vote to be taken.

The Maltese parliament does not employ a system that pays MPs an honorarium according to the number of sittings they attend, so MPs with dismal attendance records will still be paid the full amount of their honorarium

MPs - how much they were paid in the 11th legislature

But a source close to Farrugia said the new Speaker was paying "close attention" to intervention by MPs, who make a point of order to demand a correction to the previous sitting's minutes, where they state that one of their colleagues marked 'absent' on the records was in fact physically present in the chamber.

"He knows that MPs have been widely employing this correction of the minutes, but he is taking a personal interest in ensuring that MPs who are absent during sittings do not use other MPs to intercede on their behalf by making a point of order. He is checking all the records himself."