Opposition leader dubs law allowing MPs to sit on boards ‘scandalous’

The Opposition will be voting against a bill allowing MPs to sit on various government board and entities, with leader Simon Busuttil describing the law as "a most scandalous and wrong law".

According to Busuttil, the law obfuscated the distinction between government and parliament and the separation of power.

"This is only being done to appease his [Joseph Muscat's] backbenchers. It is already wrong that the government was appeasing people close to the party. But to change the law with the same intention is worse," Busuttil said.

The Opposition reiterated it would never accept that anyone of its MPs take on executive roles, as proposed by the government. " Our role is to scrutinise government. How can an MP scrutinise a board if he is sitting on that same board? Only a schizophrenic would be able to do so ," Busuttil said.

He went on to accuse government of throwing standards out of the window. "And now, the government was breaching its own meritocracy pledge: how can it argue that an MP was placed on a board based on meritocracy?"

Busuttil said the law was not only appeasing backbenchers, but also "giving them a second pay".

"The same government who criticised the honoraria increase is now advocating the second pay: the honoraria MPs receive and now for sitting on boards," Busuttil said, adding this was hypocrisy.