Muscat’s cabinet will cost the nation Eur32 million MORE than Lawrence Gonzi’s
If I had been one of those people who voted against the last government because of the Eur500 salary increase to ministers (which was stopped and the money paid back anyway) then today I would be feeling really, really stupid and cheated.
Muscat’s cabinet – the biggest ever in Maltese history – is going to cost the country Eur32 million more than Lawrence Gonzi’s over the next five years.
That’s Eur32 million that could have been spent on developing R & D at the university, on building schools, on improving healthcare and on upgrading roads and public spaces.
Instead they are going to be spent on keeping individuals happy so that they don’t do what Franco Debono, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, Jesmond Mugliett and Robert Arrigo did to Lawrence Gonzi and create a spiteful and dangerous riot in the ranks.
The keep Joseph Muscat’s back clear of the knives, we are going to have the state coffers bled by a further Eur32 million that will come from taxes.
The Times ran a story on the subject today and I used the figures it gave to create the table shown here (the newspaper has its own table but only in the print edition).
The cost of the cabinet is up by a full 71 per cent over Lawrence Gonzi’s.
The Times reports that the cost to the nation of this giant team of 23 (one prime minister, 14 ministers and eight parliamentary secretaries, with their attendant secretariats and office overheads) willrise from Eur9 million to Eur15.4 million a year.
The Eur500 increase which led to controversy and its withdrawal would have cost the public coffers only Eur338,000 a year by comparison to this Eur6 million+.
Muscat had said while campaigning that he would have a big cabinet but that it would not be more expensive than “Fenech Adami’s”.
Fenech Adami’s largest cabinet was that appointed in 2003 to deal with the huge demands of EU accession the following year. It had 20 members, but still cost Eur10 million a year less than Muscat’s.
Five years later, Lawrence Gonzi cut the cabinet by half on being returned to government, with eight ministers and two parliamentary secretaries.
The cost of each ministry is estimated at €800,000 a year; that of a parliamentary secretariat is estimated at €400,000 a year. But The Times reports that these figures are “deemed to be on the conservative side” because they tot up only the salaries of ministers and their private secretariats, and do not include overheads and running costs like transport, upkeep and lease of buildings, equipment, travel and accomodation.
Each minister is permitted 20 staff in his private secretariat, and a parliamentary secretary is allowed 11.
These employees may be seconded from the civil service, but they tend usually to come from the private sector, the party or the personal campaign teams of the politicians.
The size of this cabinet means that between them, the prime minister, 14 ministers and eight parliamentary secretaries have what The Times called “an army of 406 employees to run the show”.
This, of course, means an enormity of scope for jobs for the boys and girls.
As I reported yesterday, this has begun already with Cyrus Engerer and his boyfriend, Kurt Farrugia’s assistant in Labour Party communications, Randolph Debattista, being given positions in the deputy prime minister’s office.
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Joseph Muscat had to keep George Vella happy because the latter is allergic to the EU.
“He explained the Government’s decision to separate EU affairs from other foreign relations, saying it stemmed from the administration’s desire to deepen Malta’s EU membership further.
Bilateral relations, including those between Malta and countries which are also EU member states, would continue to be part of the foreign affairs ministerial portfolio, Dr Vella said.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/…/foreign-policy-to-be-marked-by-continuit
George Vella is very credible especially when one remembers that they willl be sending Alfred Sant to represent them.
Perhaps this is because our finanzi are fis-sod.
For now.
Ma nahsibx li ser idumu sodi wisq, habib, bir-ritmu li ghaddej bih il-ginger fiimkien ma shabu!
Ahleb Guz.
Ahli Guz.
I have taken the election result so badly. The feeling of betrayal is so complete and it’s going to take me a while to get over it because, I discovered, there are 6 phases to go through and the last one isn’t acceptance. It’s desperation.
The electoral victory wasn’t their end-game, it seems. Now they want to kick the PN while it’s down. Here’s a comment from timesofmalta.com:
Robert Musumeci, Franco Debono, J.Pullicino Orlando and Jesmond Mugliett will be with John Bundy tonight, talking about what went wrong with the Nationalist Party.
How’s that for an unbiased, level headed panel.
The only silver-lining to the massive defeat was seeing the back of these opportunistic Judahs, but it seems the PL want to keep them alive for a while longer.
Theirs was a positive campaign, you see. Now, instead of explaining what they are and will be doing, they are still focusing on the PN.
Franco has been vomiting hatred for the PN on Super One until a couple of days ago.
And then they have the gall to accuse others of ‘kissirtuh partit’.
Generally, I think, the Maltese aren’t good at mathematics. If they were, they wouldn’t have caused all this.
Ultimately, the people get the government they deserve. And bless them, they did.
This is not all. All members of the Cabinet expect a rise in salary in the next few weeks with the budgit.
If the country is in such a state of disarray, with “80% of population living in misery” (Yup, somebody actually said this on Super One some time ago), then how can Muscat have absolutely no qualms about the most expensive cabinet to date? The logic escapes me.
An extra 32 million for MLP relics? I’m thrilled…
I think we can safely assume (seeing that we didn’t fall down it since then) that we won’t be hearing Sant’s old cry of ‘hofra’ from the new cabinet.
Dak ghaliex Scicluna ghadu ma fetahx il-kotba – billi kellu jmur Brussels bhala forcina minflok Vella.
Xi haga ma tghogbux ser jghid li jsib zgur – naturalment wara li jikkontja kemm ser jigi jiswih il-Kabinett gdid,mutiplu u abbundanti, avolja thallew barra ftit nies mhux hazin.
Last I heard, anything lower than €40M is a drop in the ocean …
Another way of putting it is that the annual increase is 18.8 times (€6.4 / €0.34) the aborted Gonzi increase.
So, to those of you complaining about €500 a week, how do you feel now, at €9400 a week?
That’s basically what we’re talking about. Joey’s move is the equivalent of retaining the same cabinet and giving them all a €9400 a week raise.
The stupidity of Eddy Privitera comes to light when he justifies the enormous expenditure after spending most of his time criticising the € 500 salary increase. Typical ass h**e
Eddy Privitera has been an apologist for Labour since at least the 70s. That includes their excesses of the the 70s and 80s . His thoughts have to be seen in that context.
Joseph told journalists that the increase has to be seen in terms of ‘value for money’.
This has to be the comment of the whole legislature.
Cheap Labour.
The cost of all these new ministries is going to be a signifcant one to the country at a time when the government is aiming to achieve a budget surplus by 2015.
The last government WAS aiming for a balanced budget by 2015. This government (Joseph) actually stated that he cannot guarantee a balanced budget in the short term.
This large Cabinet cost alone, proves it.
Issa ser ikun hemm Eur32 miljun inqas ghar-rohs tad-dawl u l-ilma.
Less services, broken promises and higher taxes on the way.
“The Council commissioned a review of bureaucratic processes as would also be done in Malta through the appointment of a Commissioner for the simplification of rules, he said.” (Joseph Muscat as reported on The Times)
Isn’t there Michael Farrugia as Permanent Secretary for the Simplification of Administrative Processes or is he going to deal with MEPA only?
More jobs for the boys.
Imma ha nifranka €25 fix-xahar dawl u ilma hi!!
Of course the PL voters don’t mind. It’s their party and it can do what it wants, which basically reduces their opinion of the PN to nothing but tribal blabber.
The economy did just fine with Gonzi’s small cabinet. Muscat’s additional Euro 34 million (a conservative estimate) will help secure Labour a second term by keeping his parliamentary group happy, bar perhaps Herrera.
He will also be taking into consideration the fact that three outgoing PN MPs voted Labour and that Dalli would have done so as well weren’t it for his self-imposed exile.
Add to that the intermittent sulks emanating from Deguara, Zammit, Arrigo, and Farrugia and you get the picture. Muscat’s next job is to keep prospective canditates and other hangers-on happy so as to avoid them switching sides a la Mallia, Schembri, Farrugia, Musumeci, Micallef Leyson, Falzon, Bundy, Drake, KZT, Mangion.
Possible error: if your table is correct, Fenech Adami’s would have cost Eur 2 million a year less than Muscat’s. (It’s the difference between the 5 year cost values of 2003 and 2013 divided by the number of years going to be served).
[Daphne – I’ve given the figures from The Times report. I did not go into them myself.]
Tghid incemplu lill Joe Cordina u nitolbuh jaghmel kalkolu ezatt?
Mhux ha nfittxu x-xahra fl-ghagina ghal xi dfferenza ta 8 miljuni, bejn wiehed u iehor, le?
Of course, this is the will of the people. So what! This is only the beginning. The drama is yet to begin.
Why is broadcasting and PBS under the same minister as that for the police?
And what about all that hot air because Internal Affairs and Justice were one ministry and now the same has happened?
We’re missing one very important point here.
We must not forget that the single most important function of the private secretariats of ministers and parliamentary secretaries is what is termed “customer care”. Basically it’s all about serving constituents of that particular cabinet member with anything ranging from the smallest of favours to finding jobs, housing and jumping the queue in hospital. Essentially it is exactly what the previous government of Lawrence Gonzi notoriously sucked at.
With such a huge army of cronies financed by the public coffers (averaging 30 per district) working to keep whoever voted Labour happy for the next five years, Joseph Muscat is already laying the foundations of his victory in the next election.
I call it “Il-politika tal-pjaċiri” and it can have a devastating effect on the result of an election in Malta because we are so tiny. It is what had almost kept Labour in power in 1987 in spite of the rampant corruption, unemployment, failed economy and political murders that took place in the preceding five years. It is also what the Nationalists have foolishly been trying to change since 2003.
Frankly, I believe that with this, Joseph Muscat will be able to pull off the next election quite easily even if he manages to ravage the economy and delivers none of the promises he made in the electoral manifesto.
This is what Lawrence Gonzi had been warning about throughout the campaign and no-one took seriously. It’s the collective personal interest of the few outweighing the general interest of an entire country.
Eur 32 million is equivalent to the building of 4 secondary schools. That’s almost a secondary school a year for the whole legislature.
And as I said before this is still the tip of the iceberg. If you add to this the direct costs linked with having these ministries and parliamentary secretariats you will find many more millions.
Now I’m not against having ministries and well-paid ministers – on the contrary. But I am against the dishonesty in using the increase in the ministerial salaries as a cavallo di battaglia and then increase the bill by Eur 32 million.