While Finance Minister Clyde Caruana informed Parliament just before the summer recess that Air Malta Executive Chairman David Curmi is not being paid for the role, freedom of information challenges from The Shift show that he is being paid no less than €21,500 a month.
Documents obtained by The Shift show that Caruana lied to Parliament by falsely stating the 65-year-old he handpicked for the three-year contract worth €774,000 was not being paid for his role as the failing airline’s chairman. The statement could see him sanctioned by Parliament’s Privileges Committee.
Since Curmi’s appointment in 2021, Caruana has repeatedly refused to divulge the financial package that came with the position.
After thwarting various parliamentary questions on the subject and creating excuses to not publish Curmi’s contract, Caruana also shot down various freedom of information requests for a copy.
The finance ministry at first said the contract was not in its possession. But just recently, a few days before the House rose for the summer recess, Caruana went a step further and supplied Parliament with incorrect information about Curmi’s salary.
In response to questions over the composition of the boards falling under his remit and their respective salaries, Caruana presented a document stating that the Air Malta chairman “was not receiving any remuneration”.
Following various legal challenges by The Shift through the Freedom of Information mechanism, The Shift was finally given a copy of Curmi’s contract.
According to his three-year contract, being published in full by The Shift in the interest of transparency, Curmi will be making over three-quarters of a million euros for the three-year stint.
The former Chamber of Commerce president who spent most of his working life at an insurance agency is receiving €258,000 a year – making him the highest-paid local consultant.
The contract specifies that Curmi, as Executive Chair of Air Malta, is to be paid €21,500 a month plus an additional €3,500 a month to cover VAT.
This means that Curmi is being paid €124 an hour to lead Air Malta.
Curmi’s contract, which comes to an end this January and will likely coincide with Air Malta’s winding down, specifies that he is to speak directly and exclusively to the minister and that he cannot divulge any information, either of a political or commercial nature, to any other third party.
Engaged in 2021, and given the dual role of chairman and CEO, Curmi was given the task of turning the airline around and putting its finances back in the black.
The opposite, however, has happened and the government spent hundreds of millions of euros to shore up the airline. This included shedding more than half of its employees by giving them either golden handshakes or putting them on the state payroll.
Curmi also divested the airline of its loss-making departments, in particular its ground handling operations. Such interventions failed to yield the desired results and the airline continued to register millions of euros in losses.
After The Shift exposed the government’s plan to wind down Air Malta and replace it with a new and leaner national carrier on a low-cost model, Curmi admitted that Air Malta would close down by the end of this year.
Caruana, however, immediately and publicly censured Curmi and persisted in giving the impression that there is still a chance that Air Malta would survive.
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If there was an Oscar for Top Scrounger – the type of the Most Corrupt Person in the World with which we are more familiar -this guy David Curmi would win it, hands down
Amazing how the MLP continues to pay losers with outrageously obscene wage packets. Hardly surprising KM is finished.
How many Maltese citizens have been working for 40 years plus?
How many of these, during their working life, contributing irrespective of their loyalty to either government or private entities have earned nearly ?750,000 during their working life?
This government has boasted that they have created a new middle class. Well my feelings are that they have created a section of millionaires! Well done to the so called PL socialism.
If Curmi managed to make Air Malta a success, that exorbitant salary would have been worthwile. Will he reimburse his salary or part of it for failing to get Air Malta back on its feet ? I am not holding my breath.
David Curmi was always a loser …kien fejn kien !
This is theft of public funds. Need a tender for a huge prison next!
This minister should go. He is a pretentious mess. Apart from destroying the islands with thousands of third country unskilled surplus, he’s another liar.
It is not their money, they?re dishing out, it?s yours &,mine.Any more scandals . That is why Air Malta is a MESS.Shame. On you Caruana.
So no more ?pilot bashing? now?
Jithanzru ghas-skaptu tal-haddiem onest. U int haddiem li vvotajt lis-suppost gvern tal-haddiema hadt haqq kafe’ u pastizz mill-kazin tar-rahal ghaliex mill-Belt trid erba’ euros. Skuzi gvern tal-haddiem JISRAQ IL-HADDIEM, IL-BATUT, IL-MARID, IL-PENSJONANT U L-FQIR – kollox kontra l-ghajta tal-muvument korrott. ISTHU
???????? knockout
Air Malta is being stripped clean to the bone by savage vultures before it ‘crashes n’ burns’!
Who is going to invest in Malta’s next national airline which will continue to be a losing airline and another disaster?
I am beginning to think I have been naive in thinking that the PL represented left-wing and socialist ideals as I am regularly confused and confounded by their legislation and practices.
I am deeply ashamed that the current political authorities are nicknamed the Maltese Mafia by manyn9fvthe European especially the U.K. media community.
wow no wonder airmalta is in this bad situation and that is why to get a refund you have to wait for ages not to mention that you cannot call customer care but only send an Email and in an automated reply you will receive a reply telling you that it will take 14 days to get a reply , but it can take a month.
The prime minister and the cabinet ministers lie to us every time. They also don’t tell us the truth about the financial situation and the uncontrollable national debt.
In private industry he did not last more than a few months before being shown the door. He excels with government sponsored organisations such as BOV and MSV Life lobbying Government to make third pillar pensions compulsory so that MSV continues to take Maltese Gahan policy holders for a ride and milk them inside out
The problem is that David seems to be at the trough feeding frenzily more than he was doing the job he was being handsomely paid for. Oink oink piggy
This contract reads to me as a direct attempt at circumventing State Aid rules aka the Government of Malta paying the salary of the Air Malta CEO. I have a strong feeling that this is one of many such contracts at Air Malta.
What could a sanction be in this country? Other than a slap on
the wrist at best!
No wonder Air Malta has stopped distributing a free ‘bezzun biz-zejt’ and a measly 20c bottle of water to its passengers quite some time ago.
It had to somehow find 258,000 Euros per year to pay its Chairman.
Not even on its feet, still less on its wings!
This is absolutely Shamefull and outrageous.
I have known David over the years through my profession and as Council members of the Chamber of Commerce.
I have always had respect for his persona albeit I always doubted his sincereity and his agenda as he always kept each foot discreetly on each side of the two political camps.
I must here refer to a recent article by Desmond Zammit Marmara’ who plays the biased independent in his thoughts and blames the elite class for the PN not making inroads.
Desmond seems to be confused about the definition of ‘elite’ and all he has to do to know its real meaning is to look 360 degrees around him and see that the ‘money talks’ principle makes his party saturated with a mix of the neaveau riche and the upturned nose elite money grabbers and switchers who ride roughshod and bulldoze his party’s supporters who Edward Zammit Lewis termed as a Gahan crowd.
So whenever we, including myself, gratefully oblige EZL with his coined term ‘GAHAN’, we are calling a spade a spade.
Desmond should by now have realised that the corrupt state we live in, is built with these Gahans who blindly swallow all the lies that the government representatives feed them directly or through their prostituted media, and who like prostitutes accept the poisoned cheques in exchange for their votes. This refers to both illiterate voters and supposedly intelligent voters who cannot distinguish between a good egg and a rotten one.
Desmond you may wish to note that there are blinded Gahans across the whole political spectrum albeit Labour has the absolute majority, and that is the reason for the Labour Party’s battle cry ‘erbghin elf’.
This guy is not even worth the last 2 zeros of his paycheck !
This Minister seems to have the habit of missing items in his presentations to parliament. If David Curmi is a consultant he should have been listed as such when the Minister placed the consultants list. Same applies to Knighthood Capital the company offering consultancy that the Minister omitted from the list with probably a fee of Around 200000 Euros a month. Perhaps the Minister can shed some light on this as well.
You certainly have to be a Gahan to do a private pension.
What about the board of directors ? Who picked them up?
No wonder talks with the Commission over state aid interventions failed miserably. Caruana?s brazen falsity could be overlooked by his parliamentary accomplices but trying to hoodwink the EU Commission and getting caught will not help ( understatement) Air Malta in its negotiations to retain and transfer its assets to a new company. Somehow I don?t think Caruana will be believed at the next round of talks.
He must be Malta’s TOP PIG.
Well i wouldnt say he deserves such a salary but how about bringing up Peter davies ex chairman paid close to a million a year? Not only but he was already wanted in Trinidad for bringng down their company!!!