“There were even occasions when we worked on a Sunday,” Robert Abela protested in defence of the obscenely embarrassing revelation that he was earning €17,000 per month from the Planning Authority. And that’s from just one source.

Abela earned tens of thousands more in direct orders from ARMS,  Air Malta and the Environment Ministry, apart from his €21,000 as an MP.

How many police officers, nurses, hospital lab technicians, catering staff and health assistants work Sundays regularly – not occasionally?  How many of them work nights in difficult circumstances often exposing themselves to considerable risk? Yet none of them earns €17,000 per month.  They would consider themselves lucky to earn in a month what Abela was earning in four days from just one of his part time jobs.

And why should a lawyer with only a first degree be paid such insane amounts of money? What special academic qualifications did this man possess to merit such filthy remuneration? The answer is none.

His only special ‘qualification’ was that he is Robert Abela. And being Robert Abela, instead of hanging his head in shame at the exorbitant fees he scrounged off the taxpayer, he mounts a pathetic and aggressive rebuttal.

The man has lost touch with reality and the struggles of honest decent workers to make ends meet. For Abela, the nation’s coffers are simply his own personal ATM.

Everybody who is anybody in Labour is doing it. Rip off the taxpayer as much and as quickly as possible.  Make hay while the sun shines is Labour’s guiding principle.  Watch Joseph Muscat who twice secretly changed the rules around severance packages for those in office to benefit himself. Muscat scuppered off but not before grabbing €120,128.40.

Labour desperately tried to hide how much Muscat was paid and it took more than one year of Freedom of Information requests by this news portal to finally reveal the amount. The details of Muscat’s deal remain secret as the Office of the Prime minister adamantly refused another FOI request to publish the agreement, falsely claiming that “no specific agreement exists”.

In one of his Facebook tantrums, annoyed that his secret handshake had been exposed, Muscat rebutted that he had only taken a one time payment of €120,128,  and renounced his right to further transitional payments.

Now we’ve discovered it was all a lie. Prime Minister Abela at first refused to confirm or deny reports that Muscat was using government offices at Sa Maison for his private use. Abela has now been forced to admit that Joseph Muscat was given use of the Sa Maison offices as part of his severance package.

The building was allegedly upgraded with new windows and general refurbishment with the private dirt road leading to the concealed entrance given a fresh look by government employees. The additional cost of upgrading the offices to Muscat’s exacting standards and the cost of its use by the former prime minister must be added to the already inflated €120,000 Muscat siphoned off the taxpayer.

No wonder Abela is desperately concealing the deal he struck with Muscat. Secrecy is the weapon of the rotten. Abela finds himself with his back to the wall.

At a press conference at Marsaxlokk, he was reduced to defending the indefensible, digging himself into a deeper hole. He falsely claimed that “details have already been given” about Muscat’s secret handshake.  Of course, he knows full well that his own office fought off FOI requests about the deal with lies. The PA similarly refused FOI requests to reveal how much Abela himself was paid.

The nation retches in revulsion at the shameless abuse of public finances by Labour’s establishment.  Carmen Ciantar, Fearne’s chosen one, was awarded an eye-watering €163,000 contract while also earning thousands more as board member of the Malta Gaming Authority and Director at Transport Malta. Ian Borg paid his canvasser’s daughter, Adreana Zammit, over €108,000 in direct orders, even though she had barely graduated.

Former Minister Deborah Schembri was given four jobs, yes four. And earned over €160,000 per annum through public contracts awarded by direct order. One of her four jobs was legal consultant at the Planning Authority – at the same time that Abela was occasionally working Sundays for the same Authority and raking in hundreds of thousands.  The Lands Authority paid Justyne Caruana €48,000 per annum at the same time.

The former Gozo Minister was put on the Authority’s payroll immediately after her forced resignation. She was given an exclusive contract to take over all the Authority’s court cases in Gozo by direct order.  At the same time, she was raking in another €30,000 as a part time MP, including an extra €10,000 for chairing a parliamentary committee. And if that weren’t enough her annual income was topped by another €10,000 from WSC.

The LandsAauthority also signed contracts with Luke Dalli, the son of former Minister Helena Dalli and Glenn Bedingfield’s close friend.  Dalli was earning €3,000 per month for just 25 hours of work. Robert Musumeci, the Labour apologist, also signed contracts with the Lands Authority. Musumeci had been made consultant to prime minister Muscat earning €29,000 per year.

Musumeci and Schembri joined forces in 2017 setting up RD legal (that’s Robert and Deborah).  The two pocketed over €200,000 in just two years from the Lands authority between them.

Labour’s reckless and abusive looting of State coffers is shameless. The utter waste is eye-watering.  And these are just the tip of the iceberg. Billions more have been frittered in rotten deals – Vitals, Electrogas, DB’s SVPR, Air Malta, the GWU jobless scheme, the MBR Zejtun premises, the GWU’s A3 towers and so many more.

As workers struggle with a crippling increase in the cost of living, their rage intensifies. Meanwhile Abela attempts to placate them with a €100 cheque – out of their own money.