Updated | Standards Commissioner confirms Cabinet members did not get a salary raise

Updated with government statement at 6:25pm 

There was no raise in the salaries of Cabinet ministers and parliamentary secretaries, Standards Commissioner George Hyzler has concluded.

The only changes to salaries, Hyzler added, came from a collective agreement that increased the wages of all employees in the public service.

“First of all, it must be said that the allegations that the salaries of parliamentary secretaries have been doubled as was implied by The Shift News and [Nationalist Party MP] Jason Azzopardi are absolutely unfounded,” Hyzler wrote in his report.

READ MORE: Cassola asks Standards Commissioner to investigate parliamentary secretary salaries

Following media reports in August, former independent MEP candidate Arnold Cassola had written to the Commissioner asking him to investigate whether parliamentary secretary wages had increased since 2013.

Hyzler was asked to investigate how their wages had allegedly increased from €42,000 to €60,000 and how such a raise was kept hidden from the public. Cassola also asked Hyzler to investigate how the government was justifying such a raise.

“I decided that the case merited an investigation because ministers are supposed to carry out their duties with utmost transparency and honesty and incorrect information must be rectified as soon as possible,” Hyzler wrote.

He said that the mechanism on how salaries are paid out to parliamentary secretaries had not been tampered with and that these remained pegged with Scale 1 of the salary ladder, at 105%.

“This is what the person who penned the government statement of 17 August must have meant when he said that salaries hadn’t changed since 2013,” Hyzler wrote.

“But, of course, parliamentary secretaries did enjoy a raise of around €5,000 a year due a collective agreement signed in 2017. Whoever penned the statement did not intend to deceive, but official statements should be written with greater attention to better reflect the facts.”

Hyzler explained how parliamentary secretaries had been getting a 20% duty allowance under previous administrations but this had been done away with in 2013 and cabinet members had been instead getting a fixed allowance of €5,823 that amounts to less than the 20% allowance.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINER | Salary storm: breakdown shows no rise in ministers’ pay

He added that parliamentary secretaries were also entitled to a redeemable annual allowance of €7,000 if they chose to use their private car instead of a government-paid vehicle and that this allowance has been in existence since 2003.

“While parliamentary secretaries got a raise out of the collective agreement, this was an automatic raise, much like a raise to balance the cost of living. Their duty allowance is also way less than what their predecessors received.

"When one compares what a parliamentary secretary earned in 2013 with what he earned in 2019, the difference is only of around €3,000. This isn’t substantial especially when one considers that this happened over a period of six years,” Hyzler wrote.

He concluded by saying that such a raise due to the collective agreement signed in 2017 was very much publicized by the government and that this satisfied the obligations of transparency and honesty.

Government ascribes responsibility to Adrian Delia

In a statement, the government said that Opposition Leader Adrian Delia is ultimately responsible for the deceitful campaigns of his MP, Jason Azzopardi.

"This is not the first time that Jason Azzopardi's allegation resulted in some, intended only to harm. The responsibility falls on the shoulders of Adrian Delia who promised a new way of doing political. What will Delia do in the face of the Standards Commissioner's report? Before he speaks about such a report, he cannot be taken seriously," the statement read.