Revealed: Kurt Farrugia given €12,500 a month contract at Transport Malta

The spin doctor for disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat is being paid €12,500 a month as CEO of Transport Malta, The Shift can reveal.

Transport Malta has been resisting calls from The Shift for a copy of the new contract that will cost taxpayers more than €150,000 a year.

The contract was only made available to The Shift after the Information Commissioner issued an enforcement notice against Transport Malta for its failure to abide by his ruling on the Freedom of Information request filed.

The agreement that was finally provided shows that Farrugia’s three-year contract, includes a basic salary of €99,000, a €15,000 expense allowance, a 20% (€20,000) disturbance allowance and a €2,000 communications allowance.

It also includes non-monetary allowances paid by Transport Malta, including a full-expensed car and a full-time driver and an international health policy.

Despite this package, Farrugia has not been bound to prove his performance at the beleaguered transport regulator, so much so that his contract does not envisage a performance audit on his delivery.

Still, the perks normally tied to a performance bonus were diverted to other allowances to keep Farrugia’s take-home pay as high as possible.

During his days as Muscat’s gatekeeper, Farrugia earned less than €50,000 a year.

Just a few weeks before Muscat’s forced resignation in 2019, Farrugia was gifted a new government job at Malta Enterprise, where he was paid €11,000 a month.

During his time at Malta Enterprise, the agency responsible for attracting foreign direct investment to Malta, little to no new investment came Malta’s way.

Earlier this year, following the sacking of Aaron Farrugia as Transport Minister, Farrugia was transferred from Malta Enterprise to Transport Malta.

Despite no longer having anything to do with Malta Enterprise, Farrugia is still representing the entity on the boards of MTrace PLC and Smart City (Malta) Ltd.