Honoraria refund totalled €299,566.13

The former government ministers and parliamentary secretaries have paid back in full the €299,566.13 honoraria refund.

According to information tabled in parliament by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, the Nationalist ministers and parliamentary secretaries received a total salary increase of €1,686,876 between May 2008 and January 2012.

But contrary to the impression that may have been given during the electoral campaign, the Nationalist administration was never meant to refund the €500 salary increase but the 20% 'extra' honoraria paid.

The agreement had been reached in February 2011. In other words, the Nationalist Cabinet had to pay back one fifth of the €1,686,876.

Former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi had increased cabinet ministers' salaries on 5 May 2008 by two measures: increasing their salaries to €38,000 and also awarding them the previously forfeited parliamentary honorarium, however at 70% of the civil service's Scale 1 salary - while MPs were paid the customary 50% of Scale 1.

At a point later in time, the Speaker was also paid the 70% honorarium, but no honorarium was paid to the Opposition leader.

In an ensuing two-day debate in February 2011 on the parliamentary honoraria, which followed unrest from inside the Nationalist backbench, Lawrence Gonzi had announced that the Cabinet would refund the 'extra' 20% honorarium paid over the past three years.

The €14,000 refund had to be paid back by means of a monthly fixed deduction, to be paid up to December 2012. The former Speaker Louis Galea refunded his surplus honorarium on 30 October 2011.

Former social policy minister John Dalli had refunded his honorarium on 15 November 2011.

The Auditor General said Cabinet decisions involving MPs should be communicated to the House of Representatives to avoid misunderstandings, and any similar increases have to be given by the responsible authority to ensure all ministries adopt a 'uniform and standard' incidence of charge.

In his 2011 report on the honoraria, the Auditor General confirmed that then Prime Minister, eight Ministers and five parliamentary secretaries were to refund the 20% 'extra' honoraria paid.