Former prime minister Joseph Muscat has been afforded the service of a public official and has retained his diplomatic passport as part of his severance package following his resignation in January 2020.
The package, approved in December 2019 at the height of public protests against his administration, includes unspecified “other protocol facilities” with the diplomatic passport.
Muscat also enjoys the use of a paid car and driver as well as the “use of a second car”, presumably that which his wife Michelle uses.
On the technology front, Abela informed the House in answer to a parliamentary question tabled by opposition MP Graham Bencini, the disgraced former prime minister is being provided with two landlines and an internet connection, a computer with a printer and scanner and his mobile phone expenses are covered up to a maximum of € 2,330 per year.
The perks are over and above the “use of an office”, that at Sa Maison where he is conducting his private consultancy business, and a terminal benefit or transitional allowance.
The top floor of this public building in Sa Maison is being used by Joseph Muscat for his private business.
The terminal benefit, Abela explained, covered the period from 1 October 2008, when Muscat had been appointed opposition leader until his last day as prime minister on 12 January 2020.
Muscat has explained in the past that he had been given a single payment of €120,128.40 and that he waived other transitional allowances for time served as opposition leader and prime minister between 2008 and 2020. He has said €41,633 in tax had been deducted, leaving him with a balance of €78,495.40.
Muscat had, however, changed the policy of terminal benefits for those occupying Cabinet positions just before his departure in 2019, which resulted in a more substantial golden handshake for him – possibly double what he’d have been entitled to under the original arrangements.
Muscat’s termination benefits were calculated back to when he was opposition leader, according to the OPM’s eventual response to The Shift’s Freedom of Information requests.
Muscat had referred to a Cabinet memo drawn up by a Nationalist administration that determined terminal and transitional benefits for Cabinet members who lose their position either through their resignation, sacking, or a change in government.
But even when you take all years Muscat was referring to into consideration – October 2008 to January 2020 – Muscat should have received around €60,000, not €120,000, according to the PN Cabinet memo to which Muscat referred.
Diplomatic Passport?????
This is a go as he pleases and carry whatever he wants out and into Malta.
This is better than bit-coin.
Certainly, Joseph Muscat always puts high value in money for himself and his service, no matter what the result was and is. To issue him with a diplomatic passport makes me wonder whether such procedure is the rule in other countries too, for a former PM. Somehow, the whole ‘package’ he’s got for himself before he resigned, explains why he waited until the mid of January 2020 to step down, as he had to alter the regulation accordingly to get what he wanted.
This article just shows once again the ‘self-service’ mentality of the high ranking PLers. No wonder that everyone of them is just too happy to get a CEO job somewhere, and never be asked about their professional background for the job offered and thus qualification certificates are not necessary for them.
What a DISGRACE of corrupt politicians. An extractive ‘elite’ sucking and sucking eternally. How can any citizen think this is a LABOUR politician? He doesn’t even pay for a printer.
The situation is really desesperate.
The PL is anything but a true Labour Party and I have given up on regarding them as such. The more I learned about them, the more I became disgusted by their leading class and also by the stupidity and stubbornness of their members and followers.
In my imagination, the relationship between the PL and Malta is like to compare it with a broken relationship between a man and a women, whether married or just in a partnership. The PL is the male part who abuses the female part which is Malta. The PL enriching itself via its cronies and Malta has to pay for it. It would be best for the female part if the abusive male would leave, but the male part is still not going to leave because the female is still not yet determined to kick out the abusive male herself.
It really sets a record in negativity what the PL has been doing during the past ten years and is to continue for the still four years they are in government. The worst in all this is, that the PL can always say ‘we didn’t force you to vote for us, you voted us in and confirmed it with the third landslide in a row for us last year’. Sounds stupid, but that’s how it is and the PL remains the bunch of reckless politicians driven by greed. Thanks to the useful idiots who voted PL since 2013 and as a means of gratitude, EZL just told them what the PL thinks of its voters “Gahan”. Still, they voted for PL again. There’s nothing one can do about it, when people are that stupid, there is no cure.
The only way to sort out this mess it to bring those over to vote who have abstained from voting and give them an alternative to vote for and thus shifting the majority within the electorate. Otherwise, the Gahans are happy with being abused and insulted and never raise their voice against the master that feeds them.
If the illiterate trolls from the muvument korrott will understand what this means, we will have a revolution worst than that of the French. SHAME ON YOU joseph how you made our nation a
mizbla immexxija min go maqjel kif iddeskriva l- parlamnt anglu.
Does Keith supply him paper among other things lol?
toilet paper
For how does the tit suck last? Five years? For life?
Seriously?¿??
ONLYINMALTA.CO
This has got to stop. What country in the world gives a criminal like Muscat a Diplomatic Passport? This is truly Mafialand without doubt.
He also seems to have retained his security detail (see video after his most recent courts appearance) – the usual faces who were part of his security when PM. Who pays for these people?
possibly a more befitting “severance package” would now include a small patch to till within the confines of Corradino, with the continuous hands-on assistance of the Commissioners of Police and Attorney General.
D P GIVEN TO THE MOST CORRUPT xpm who had ruined Malta’s image. Who said that Mafiamalta has become a den of thieves?
its a labour trend… from min of financa to ceo Central bank instead of jail for the hospitals affair an increase in salary and benefits plus jobs in the EU for his daughter.
It simply amazes me how this ex-Prime Minister received €120,000 on his termination and still begged the State for a computer and printer costing a couple of thousand euro if at all!
The man should be stripped of all the perks. I am sure that the gov could make good use of the sa maison office, the cars could be added to the gov fleet and the diplomatic passport cancelled. No more VIP treatment.