OPM chief of staff earning more than the prime minister, on paper

Mark Mallia, a former army officer now heading the private secretariat of the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), is earning more than his boss.

According to his contract as Head of Secretariat signed last month and seen by The Shift, Mallia receives a financial package of almost €65,069.

His package, endorsed by Abela, includes a salary commensurate to that of the Police Commissioner or a Permanent Secretary with a caveat that he was also given an additional 20% “disturbance allowance” on top of his salary, apart from other allowances.

Compared to his predecessor, Glenn Micallef, who is now in the running to become Malta’s European Commissioner, Mallia is being paid some €8,000 more even though the Prime Minister only approved the latest contract with Micallef a few months earlier.

According to his latest tax declaration for 2023, Robert Abela declared an income of €63,679, including all allowances, as Prime Minister. Abela’s assistant is now getting paid €2,000 more annually.

Mallia, who, upon Labour’s return to power in 2013, set a record of receiving four different army promotions in six months, becoming deputy commander from the rank of captain, is considered one of the PM’s ‘golden boys‘.

His relationship with the Abela family dates back to when he served as President George Abela’s (the Prime Minister’s father) aide-de-camp.

Government insiders describe him as efficient and hardworking.

Although his new financial package is high, considering the public service structure, he still suffered a financial blow compared to his latest government job.

Last February, Mallia was appointed CEO of Transport Malta, the public entity responsible for transport. In that post, his financial package was €136,385, almost twice what he now earns as the Prime Minister’s second in command.

While Maltese politicians, particularly government executive members, are among the lowest paid in the EU, their subordinates have a better situation and receive better remuneration than their bosses because parties in government have refused to increase politicians’ salaries, fearing a political backlash.

Almost all CEOs and executive chairpersons of government entities and agencies are now on a better payment structure than the Minister who appointed them.

With the government struggling to find suitable people for critical positions, which generally come with significant responsibilities, financial packages have been increasing exponentially.

Ministers have repeatedly made ‘exceptions’  to give their chosen ones additional allowances to keep them satisfied.

Yet even with the average government CEO package rising to more than €100,000 annually, many appointees are ministerial apparatchiks and often incompetent.

In 2013, Labour set up an independent commission to recommend a revision of politician’s remunerations.

It concluded that the financial packages of the Prime Minister, Ministers, and MPs should at least double, ranging from €95,000 for the Prime Minister to €73,000 for a Minister. These figures were based on 2013 civil service salaries.

Although all parties agreed with these conclusions, Labour never implemented these recommendations.

A senior civil servant described the situation as reaching ridiculous proportions and suggested that the saying “if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys ” fits perfectly with the local scenario.