PBS executive chairman was paid €8,666 per board meeting last year

PBS Executive Chairman Mark Sammut was paid €8,666 per board meeting he presided over last year, making him one of the highest-paid executives when it comes to remuneration for board meeting attendance, according to a Freedom of Information request filed by The Shift.

Sammut earned €26,000 in 2022 to preside over just three PBS board meetings. The annual honorarium is over and above the €100,000 a year he already earns as PBS’ chief executive officer, irrespective of how many board meetings he convenes.

Previously, the executive chairman and CEO roles were separated in the interest of checks and balances, but Prime Minister Robert Abela appointed Sammut to fill both roles simultaneously.

On top of his already generous salary as the CEO of PBS, Sammut is also receiving the €26,000 honorarium generally reserved for the company’s non-executive chairman role.

After refusing to reply to The Shift’s questions on the number of board meetings he was conducting every year, a Freedom of Information request was filed for a list of PBS board meetings.

The information confirms what various PBS board members told The Shift in confidence – that the board under Sammut has rarely met and is being sidelined.

The information shows that during 2021, the first year in which he served as executive chairman, Sammut had only met his fellow directors on three occasions.

The same happened in 2022 when Sammut asked board members to attend only three board meetings in 12 months – making his remuneration as the executive chairman overseeing the meetings €8,666 per session.

The Shift is informed that this year too, Sammut continued to ignore his fellow board members and has only convened the board of directors on two occasions.

One of these meetings was held just a few days after The Shift filed its request for the list of board meetings held under Sammut’s chairmanship.

A standard rule of thumb is that companies convene their boards at least once a month.

PBS board members have told The Shift that apart from the total lack of communication between the board and the CEO, Sammut’s board meetings are “more of a filtered information session than a discussion and policy making”.

“On the few occasions when we meet the chairman, he just informs us of the initiatives he is undertaking, often concerning the spending of public funds, and asks for our approval. Most decisions we are asked to approve would already have been executed. It’s a total waste of time since PBS has become a one-man-show,” one board member said.

Sammut, an IT professional, had never worked in broadcasting before the prime minister handpicked him to run the state broadcaster. Formerly, he was a consultant to Nationalist Minister John Dalli.

During his two years at the helm, PBS continued to lose millions of euros a year, with the government having to inject over €6 million a year into the broadcaster to keep it afloat.

PBS continued to drop in programme quality and ratings while Castille’s grip on its current affairs and news programmes continued to increase.

Apart from controlling PBS on behalf of the Labour Government, Sammut is also involved in other government operations.

The government has also appointed Sammut as the chairman of the one-plane Malta MedAir.

Through his private IT businesses – Cursor Limited and Mall Systems Ltd – Sammut also receives direct orders from the Health Ministry worth tens of thousands of euros annually.

Until a few months ago, Sammut’s wife Carmen was Health Minister Chris Fearne’s chief of staff, and she moved over to the payroll of Parliamentary Secretary Rebecca Buttigieg as her chief of staff after the last general elections.