Aqra bil-Malti

Disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat’s Maserati is costing Maltese taxpayers €1,250 a month, or €15,000 a year.

According to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), Muscat requested the vehicle earlier this year. It is being financed as part of his severance package as a former prime minister.

The OPM refused to reveal the lease contract or the company supplying the car but told The Shift that Muscat is being given the same monthly allowance he enjoyed when using an Alfa Romeo Giulia leased from Burmarrad Commercials.

The earlier contract with Burmarrad Commercials was for a five-year lease. Whether the OPM had to pay penalties for early release from the contract so Muscat could upgrade his taxpayer-funded car to a Maserati is as yet unclear.

The Shift contacted Joseph Muscat, who confirmed that taxpayers were paying for his new car. But he insisted he was still using the same allowance he received as a former prime minister and was paying the difference in leasing costs himself.

“I benefit from the normal leasing allowance as other former prime ministers,” he said, describing the issue of his Maserati as “a non-story”.

“The difference between the allowance and the lease of the vehicle is covered by me personally and is paid in advance via bank.”

Muscat’s assets are currently subject to a €30 million freezing order imposed during criminal proceedings in connection with the hospitals scandal. It is unclear how he is financing his monthly payments for the Maserati.

According to unpublished rules, former presidents and prime ministers are given a severance package when they leave office consisting of a car, driver and personal assistant, but Prime Minister Robert Abela agreed to provide his disgraced predecessor with a more generous package than those who previously occupied the same office.

Abela agreed that, unlike former prime ministers, Muscat should also be given a fully paid Range Rover for the use of his wife Michelle, who never held any public office, and the use of a newly refurbished office in Sa Maison in Pieta for his private consultancy business.

In 2020, during his first year after leaving office, Muscat declared €500,000 in earnings from consultancies.

Michelle Muscat’s car is paid for by taxpayers.

Abela also approved a €120,000 golden handshake for Muscat upon the latter’s forced resignation, an amount far in excess of what the disgraced former prime minister was entitled to receive.

The Shift revealed in June 2021 that Muscat had secretly changed the rules for terminal benefits to former Cabinet members twice for his own benefit. Abela has not made these new rules public.

This is not the first controversy related to Muscat and his cars. In 2013, upon becoming prime minister, he leased his personal car to the government, cashing in on an extra €7,000 per year.