Mario Galea mum on €14,000 ‘refund problem’

Galea declared his difficulty during last Wednesday’s emergency Cabinet meeting, when Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi asked his ministers and parliamentary secretaries to refund the difference in honorarium they were taking home more than MPs.

Contacted by MaltaToday, Mario Galea stressed he had no comment to make and that he would not reveal what was discussed in Cabinet.

When pressed on the matter, Mario Galea said that “everyone will make the refund, including myself.”

He stressed that whoever claimed that he had declared his difficulty to refund his honorarium “was wrong to have spoken to the media.”

Meanwhile, Cabinet members and Nationalist MPs have rallied behind Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi as he faces the fall-out of the political and administrative mess connected to the honoraria increase.

In comments to MaltaToday, PN parliamentary group whip David Agius, who also sits on the House Business Committee that will discuss the allowances and honoraria for MPs, expressed loyalty to the PM. “I am behind the Prime Minister and the statement he made in Parliament last Wednesday evening, however I will go before the parliamentary committee with an open mind, hoping to engage with the Opposition and find a solution to the issue.”

The same opinion was expressed by Gozo Nationalist MP Frederick Azzopardi, who is also a member of the House Business Committee.

Two emails sent to transport minister Austin Gatt remained unanswered, while rural affairs minister George Pullicino declared a “yes” in agreement with the Prime Minister’s statement.

Sliema MP Robert Arrigo stressed that his position “is that of the parliamentary group” while MPs Francis Zammit Dimech and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando declared a “yes” in agreement with their Prime Minister and party leader.

Parliamentary secretary Jason Azzopardi stressed that while he agrees with the Prime Minister, he hopes that the media “investigates the Opposition’s deceit when saying that it will forward eventual increases into a charitable fund, when in fact all that was agreed was that Labour MPs will contribute how much they wanted to this fund.”

Other ministers and MPs declined to return replies to MaltaToday’s questions.

A political and administrative mess

The Prime Minister’s U-turn on honoraria has led to the forfeiture of approximately €1.3 million in increases to MPs for this legislature.

While many MPs across the political divide have privately expressed frustration that they now risk losing a substantial amount of money in honoraria, the increases now risk being blocked as government and opposition sit to discuss the matter before the House Business Committee.

While Labour leader Joseph Muscat has declared he will forfeit all of his increase, and other MPs declaring they will forward some or all of their forecasted increase to causes close to them, many argue that no agreement will be reached in committee.

The committee will meet under the chairmanship of Speaker Michael Frendo, who also has the task of delivering rulings requested by former Prime Minister Alfred Sant and PL whip Joe Mizzi, on whether government acted in contempt of parliament when approving the honoraria increase without MPs knowing.

Unanswered questions

Questions have been raised as to why didn’t the secretary to the Cabinet, who communicated the minutes of the Cabinet agreement on honoraria to the finance ministry, never informed the Opposition leader and the Speaker of the approved raises – which also applied to them.

Such a failure justifies Labour’s claims that Cabinet’s approval of the increases was done with “stealth”, while also proving Alfred Sant right in his claims of contempt of parliament.

Other questions being raised are whether any formal correspondence exists to support the Prime Minister’s claim that the former Speaker Louis Galea had some brief to engage with the Opposition and discuss the increases within the House Business Committee.

While Louis Galea refused to comment on this matter, saying that he is “out of politics,” the matter still merits an answer from the Speaker’s Office, mostly regarding the possibility or not of the existence of any formal correspondence, including any terms of reference for discussions within the House Business Committee.

But as ministers claim that they never knew MPs were not receiving any increased honoraria [MPs were paid €19,000] it remains to be seen as to why finance minister Tonio Fenech or his permanent secretary didn’t inform parliament when the ministry authorised the Treasury to increase the allowances to Cabinet.